Jackie Ormes

Jackie Ormes
Jackie Ormes holding a Patty-Jo doll.
Born	Zelda Mavin Jackson August 1, 1911 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died	December 26, 1985(1985-12-26) (aged 74) Chicago, Illinois
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Cartoonist
Notable works	Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem Candy Patty Jo 'n' Ginger Torchy in Heartbeats (originally titled Torchy Brown Heartbeats) and accompanying Torchy Togs (paper doll cutouts).
Awards	National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame

Jackie Ormes (August 1, 1911 – December 26, 1985) is known as the first African American woman cartoonist and created the Torchy Brown comic strip and the Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger panel.

Jackie Ormes was born Zelda Mavin Jackson on August 1, 1911, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to parents William Winfield Jackson and Mary Brown Jackson. Her father William, the owner of a printing company and movie theater proprietor, was killed in an automobile accident in 1917. This resulted in the then six-year old Jackie and her younger sister Dolores in the care of their aunt and uncle for a brief period of time. Eventually, Jackie's mother remarried and the family relocated to the nearby suburb of Monongahela. Ormes described the suburb in a 1985 interview for the Chicago Reader as "spread out and simple. Nothing momentous ever happens here". It would be in Monongahela that she would attend high school until graduating in 1930.

Ormes drew and wrote throughout high school. It was during this period that she wrote a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, a weekly African-American newspaper that was published on Saturdays. The then-editor, Robert Van, wrote back. This correspondence led to her first writing assignment- covering a boxing match. Her coverage of future matches led her becoming an avid fan of the sport.

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 interests topics. While she enjoyed "a great career running around town, looking into everything the law would allow, and writing about it", what we really wanted to do was draw.

Ormes's first comic strip, Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem, first appeared in the Pittsburgh Courier in 1937. In addition to the Courier,Torchy Brown was syndicated to fourteen other black newspapers. The strip,starring Torchy Brown, was a humorous depiction of a Mississippi teen who found fame and fortune singing and dancing in the Cotton Club. Torchy's journey from Mississippi to New York City mirrored the journey of many African-Americans who ventured northward during the Great Migration. It was through Torchy Brown that Ormes became the first African-American woman to produce a syndicated comic strip. The strip would run until 1940. The reason for the strip's abrupt end is uncertain, but it is presumed to be due to an end in her contract.