As we close out Black History Month, the latest Chicago story-maker in our flagship series is a celebrity cartoonist. Jackie Ormes broke barriers by becoming the first black cartoonist to be published in a newspaper.
She got her start at the Pittsburgh Courier in the 1930s. She moved to Chicago in the 1940s, where her cartoons appeared in The Chicago Defender. Ormes’ most popular cartoon, “Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger”, was a political commentary on African-American life. Patty Jo was then made into the first African American doll who wasn’t a mom or some other black stereotype. Ormes was known for addressing social and political issues in her cartoons, a practice we still see today.
“I’m sure she influenced people like the gentlemen who created the Boondocks a bit later, like just her initial style,” said Chicago urban historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas. “One of her last cartoons that was placed in the Chicago Defender was that she was advocating for the Montgomery bus boycott, so that kind of advocacy that you see subtly in the comics that we read in the papers surely comes of her.”
Ormes was also a founding board member of the DuSable Museum of African American History. His work can be seen there today.
Photos are courtesy of Nancy Goldstein, who wrote the book”Jackie Ormes: the first African-American cartoonist.”