Jackie Ormes, an African-American cartoonist from Pennsylvania, was born on August 1st, 1911. Her father, William Winfield Jackson, owned and operated a printing business, and her mother, Mary Brown Jackson, was a homemaker.  As a teenager, Jackie published her first comics in her school’s yearbook as Monongahela High School’s Yearbook arts editor.  After graduating, she worked as a proofreader for the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper. This is also where she starts her first comic strip with “Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem.” After being with the Pittsburgh Courier, she moved to Chicago and became a journalist and special assignment reporter. She would later return to the Courier and make her most well-known comic strip, “Patty Jo `n’ Ginger. The strip was about a stylish and sarcastic little girl who offered commentary to political and sociological commentary to her older sister, Ginger. The comic strip was so popular that Ormes created and produced the Patty Jo dolls. The dolls were the first African American girl dolls to include an extensive wardrobe and break the norms of African American girl dolls being depicted from racist stereotypes. Jackie Ormes would also create her last comic strip, Torchy Brown, Heartbeats, for the Pittsburgh Courier. Toward the end of her career, she dedicated her time to giving back to the Chicago community and painting murals and portraits. Jackie Ormes's career is a trailblazer in vocalizing social and political injustices through the lens of being an African American woman.

TIMELINE

1911 – Born Zelda Jackie Jackson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1929-1930 – Arts Editor for the Monogahela High School Yearbook
1930 – Graduated from Monongahela High School
1930-1937 – Worked for the Pittsburgh Courier
1937-1938 – Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem comic strip
1942-1945 – Worked for the Chicago Defender
1945-1945 – Candy comic strip
1945-1956 – Went back to work for the Pittsburgh Courier
1945-1956 – Patty Jo ‘n” Ginger comic strip
1947-1949 – Patty Jo doll series
1948-1958 – Investigated by the FBI
1950-1954 – Torchy Brown, Heartbeats comic strip
1956 – Retired from cartooning
1985 – Died in Chicago
2014 – Inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists
2018 – Inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame

REFERENCES

Ashawnta_Jackson. (2022). The groundbreaking work of Jackie Ormes. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/the-groundbreaking-work-of-jackie-ormes/

Blackartstory.org Editors. (2020, September 1). Profile: Jackie Ormes (1911-1985). Black Art Story. https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/01/profile-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/

Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist - biography from University of Michigan Press. (n.d.). https://www.jackieormes.com/

Jenkins, E. (2009). [Review of JACKIE ORMES: The First African American Woman Cartoonist, by N. Goldstein]. American Studies, 50(1/2), 218–219. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41057260

McGurk, C. (2013, February 22). Found in the collection: Jackie Ormes! (1911-1985) | Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog. https://library.osu.edu/site/cartoons/2013/02/22/found-in-the-collection-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/

Norris, K. (2008, July 29). Comics Crusader: Remembering Jackie Ormes. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/29/93029000/comics-crusader-remembering-jackie-ormes

Onion, R. (2013, August 13). Fifty Years Before Boondocks There Was Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/08/patty-jo-n-ginger-the-ground-breaking-african-american-cartoon-of-the-1940s.html

Seaman, D. (2008, February 1). Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist. Booklist, 104(11), 22. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A174747902/LitRC?u=edmo56673&sid=summon&xid=fe888f06

Teutsch, M. (2018, January 8). Cartoonist Jackie Ormes’ commentary on Black life. AAIHS - African American Intellectual History Society. https://www.aaihs.org/cartoonist-jackie-ormes-commentary-on-black-life/

Woodford, J. (2208) Review of Jackie Ormes: A Great Cartoonist Finally Gets Her Due, by Nancy Goldstein. The Black Scholar 38, no. 2/3 , 54–60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41069980.