“Jackie Ormes (1911-1985), creator of several popular comic strips in the 1930s–1950s, was the first female, African American syndicated cartoonist. In a male-dominated industry, Jackie captured a national audience with her fashionable and opinionated characters.
Ormes started out as a proofreader and freelance journalist for the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper which published her first comic strip in 1937. Her debut strip, Torchy Brown in “Dixie to Harlem”, follows a young Mississippi girl as she moves to NYC to become a lounge singer. The strip appeared in 15 black newspapers across the country; it was then that Ormes became the only black female syndicated cartoonist until the 1990s.
Comic fans can only speculate as to the exact reason(s) why Ormes halted her career. But comics or no, Ormes was an interesting lady: she continued making art, rubbed shoulders with Chicago’s political leaders, and served on the founding Board of Directors for the DuSable Museum of African American History. The McCarthy-era FBI thought Ormes was interesting, too: they compiled a 287-page report on her, apparently because she was seen at a bookstore with Communist figures. Nevermind the political views expressed by her characters—the report never mentioned her comic strips at all.
Whether she intended to change the world or simply spoke on what mattered to her, Jackie Ormes was a shining light in popular media. Where many comic artists drew painfully ignorant characters, Jackie skillfully portrayed young black women as intelligent, dynamic, fashionable, ready to take on the world—and for that, she should be celebrated as one of the greats."—BY MELANIE RICHARDS
