Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist

ISBN: 0472037552

Author: Goldstein, Nancy

Condition: Used

At a time of few opportunities for women in general and even fewer for African American women, Jackie Ormes (1911-85) blazed a trail as a popular cartoonist with the major black newspapers of the day. Her cartoon characters (including Torchy Brown, Candy, Patty-Jo, and Ginger) delighted readers and spawned other products, including an elegant doll with a stylish wardrobe and Torchy Togs paper dolls. Ormes was a member of Chicagos black elite, with a social circle that included the leading political figures and entertainers of the day. Her cartoons and comic strips provide an invaluable glimpse into American culture and history, with topics that include racial segregation, U.S. foreign policy, educational equality, the atom bomb, and environmental pollution, among other pressing issues of the times-and of todays world as well. This celebrated biography features a large sampling of Ormess cartoons and comic strips, and a new preface.