Jackie Ormes: Google dedicates doodle to first African-American woman cartoonist

Google today dedicates a mesmerizing doodle to Jackie Ormes, the famous American cartoonist and activist and the creator of the Torchy Brown comic strip and the Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger panel.

Jackie Ormes is known as the first African-American woman cartoonist. Jackie Ormes was born on August 1, 1911 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father William Winfield Jackson, the owner of a printing company and movie theater proprietor, was killed in an automobile accident in 1917 .

Jackie Ormes used to draw and write throughout high school. She was arts editor for the 1929–1930 Monongahela High School Yearbook where her earliest efforts as a cartoonist can be seen in the lively caricatures of her school's students and teachers.

Jackie Ormes started in journalism as a proofreader for the Pittsburgh Courier. She also worked as an editor and as a freelance writer, writing on police beats, court cases and human-interest topics. While she enjoyed "a great career running around town, looking into everything the law would allow, and writing about it," what she really wanted to do was draw.

Across all of her work, Jackie Ormes’s heroines faced real-life issues like romantic heartbreak, environmental justice, and gender inequality, mirroring the issues Jackie Ormes encountered in her own life and those around her. Her characters were all independent women—confident, intelligent, attractive, and brave, who persevered against adversity to reach their next adventure.

Jackie Ormes furthered positive depictions of Black women and girls while also expressing her talent for fashion design through the development of several dolls related to her characters. In 1949 she made history by designing one of the first high quality American Black dolls “Patty-Jo,” complete with an extensive wardrobe produced by the Terri Lee Doll company. Later, her 1950 debut of a new, full color comic strip featuring her character Torchy, came with an accompanying paper doll topper, “Torchy Togs.” This bonus feature promoted a positive depiction of Black women while advising them on such fashion tenets as fabric, cut, and seasonal trends.

A pioneering professional woman in a male-dominated cartooning industry, Jackie Ormes retired in 1956 but continued her commitment to advocacy and community leadership throughout the rest of her life. In recognition of her achievements, Ormes was posthumously inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame in 2014 as well as the Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame in 2018.

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