The radical Jackie Ormes: first Black woman cartoonist of the Black press
Date
2025
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
As the first Black woman cartoonist of the Black press, Jackie Ormes significantly impacted Black cultural production. Ormes published four comics in the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender from 1937 to 1956: Torchy Brown in ‘Dixie to Harlem; Candy; Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger; and Torchy in Heartbeats. Her work expanded off the page into the hands of women and girls nationally and internationally, as she created the Patty-Jo doll in collaboration with the Terry Lee Doll Company. In addition, Ormes turned her character Torchy Brown into a paper doll featured in Torchy in Heartbeats called “Torchy Togs.” This dissertation looks at Ormes’s work on and off the page as forms of Black feminist activism and Black joy, incorporating the concept of sass to show how Ormes used humor to combat Jane Crow. Ormes’s work illustrates the politics of respectability’s constraints on Black womanhood through her Black female characters’ bodily autonomy and sexual agency. Moreover, Ormes’s work gives voice to Black women domestic workers through her character Candy. Ormes’s legacy is rooted in uplifting Black women and children through play, fashion, and humor. This project illustrates the importance of Black women’s archive in activating the full narrative of their significant contributions to Black cultural production. While only a single box, Ormes’s archive is significant to understanding the influence and impact of Ormes to Black women and girls nationwide. This dissertation is rooted in the archive to understand Ormes’s work on and off the page through newspapers, correspondences, and images. “The Radical Jackie Ormes: The First Black Woman Cartoonist of the Black Press” is a hybrid scholarly and public humanities project comprising three chapters and a pop-up exhibition.
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Keywords
Black comics, Black feminism, Black popular culture, Black print culture