Who was the first black female cartoonist in a male dominated field to create artwork that challenged the stereotyped image of black women? Her name is Jackie Ormes. She began her career as a journalist at the Pittsburgh Courier, a weekly African American newspaper. Ormes’ experience of gender, racial bias, and lack of opportunities as a reporter prompted her to reinvent herself by reporting her narratives visually in comic strips. What made Ormes’ cartoons significant? How do Ormes’ images transcend misrepresented and misunderstood black women? Her satirical cartoons battled the seriousness of racism, gender discrimination, and sexism. The intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality is often absent in the scholarly literature about comics.
