Doyle’s self caricature John Q. Public, who appeared in many of his iconic editorial cartoons as a representative of the common man, was a man of his time and naturally limited in his outlook and interests. Editorial cartoonists in the United States in the mid 20th-century were overwhelmingly white and male. The newspaper reading public naturally included women and African Americans, some of whom would not have seen themselves, or the issues they cared about, reflected in John Q. Public. In the spirit of representation matters, we have created this page to highlight some notable 20th-century women and/or Black editorial cartoonists as well as some scholarly, popular, and teaching resources as a beginning point to think more about representations of gender and race in editorial cartooning.
Anne Mergen, 1906–1994
Anne Briardy Mergen worked for the Miami Daily News from 1938-1956 and was the only female editorial cartoonist on the staff of a major American newspaper for her entire career. Her most notable works address World War II, the Cold War, and the Korean War. A collection of Mergen’s cartoons can be accessed through The Ohio State University Library digital exhibit titled Anne Mergen, Editorial Cartoonist.
Oliver Harrington, 1912–1995
In the 1930s, Oliver Harrington drew regular cartoons for the Amsterdam News, the oldest Black owned and directed newspaper in the US, criticizing racism in his comic strip titled “Dark Laughter”. It became the first Black comic strip to receive national recognition, but Harrington’s outspokenness against violence towards African Americans drew negative attention and eventually brought scrutiny from the FBI. In 1951 he moved to Europe to escape government surveillance and joined a group of other African-American expatriate writers, later writing his book Why I Left America and Other Essays. A digital collection of Harrington’s cartoons can be viewed through The Library of Congress website.
Chester Commodore, 1914–2004
Chester Commodore was an editorial cartoonist for The Chicago Defender from 1948 to his retirement in 1981 and a 12 time Pulitzer Prize nominee. He had originally been offered a job at the Minneapolis Star in 1938 but was rejected when the owners and staff found out he was Black. He is best known for his weekly caricature series titled Accent which reflected on the exclusion of African Americans from political and economic opportunities. To view Commodore’s work go to the Chicago Public Library collection of Chester Commodore Papers. An oral history with Commodore is available as part of Columbia University Libraries’ Black Journalists Oral History Collection: Oral history interview with Chester Commodore 1972.
Brumsic Brandon Jr. 1927–2014
While Brumsic Brandon Jr. is best known for his satirical comic strip Luther, one of the earliest cartoons to feature an African American lead, he also contributed many editorial cartoons to various publications across the US. Brandon often gave art lessons through appearances in local children’s TV programs and taught his daughter, Barbara Brandon-Croft (see below), how to draw. More information on Brandon and his work, can be found on lambiek.net’s Comiclopedia, which features more than 14,000 comic artists from around the world.
Signe Wilkinson, b. 1950
Signe Wilkinson was an apprentice to Jerry Doyle until his death in 1986. She draws multiple weekly cartoons for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, and was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her editorial cartooning in 1992. She is best known for her published collections Abortion Cartoons on Demand and One Nation, Under Surveillance. Wilkinson’s work can be seen on her personal website.
David G. Brown, b. 1954
David G. Brown is currently an editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Sentinel producing weekly political commentary. His book Barack, Race and the Media: Drawing my own Conclusions won a NAACP Image Award in 2009, and he has been featured in multiple editions of the Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year by Pelican Publishing Company Inc. Brown’s editorial cartoons can be viewed on the Los Angeles Sentinel website Editorial Cartoons by David G. Brown.
Barbara Brandon-Croft, b. 1958
In 1991, Barbara Brandon-Croft became the first nationally syndicated Black female cartoonist. She is best known for her comic strip “Where I’m Coming From” published in the Detroit Free Press. She was taught cartooning by her father, Brumsic Brandon, Jr. (see above), who was an editorial cartoonist during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 70s. Read an interview with Brandon-Croft at In the Trove about her life and work for the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Courier, the Chicago Defender, and Essence.
Timothy Jackson, b. 1958
Timothy Jackson is a syndicated cartoonist best known for his book Pioneering Cartoonists of Color. The book features African American editorial cartoonists, illustrators, and comic strip authors who created works from the 1880s to 1968. His own editorial cartoons have appeared in The Chicago Defender, The Chicago Tribune, The Cincinnati Herald, and other newspapers. See Jackson’s work on his personal website titled Illustrations and Cartoon Art of Tim Jackson.
Teaching Resources
Learning for Justice has created a resource for teaching social justice using editorial cartoons for middle and high school students:
Using Editorial Cartoons to Teach Social Justice. There are lessons around racial profiling, environmental justice, and gender discrimination, for example.
Scholarly and Popular Resources
(Some available with Penn State login)
(2021), “The symbolic representation of women’s political firsts in editorial cartoons,” Feminist Media Studies.
J. Smethurst & R. Rubin (2020), “The Cartoons of Ollie Harrington, the Black Left, and the African American Press during the Jim Crow Era,” American Studies, 59 (3).