Oliver
Harrington was
born in Valhalla, New York on 14th February, 1912. After being educated
at Yale School of Fine Arts and the National
Academy of Design, he contributed cartoons to newspapers in Harlem.
In 1935 Harrington was recruited by the Amsterdam
News. It was while working for this paper that he created
Bootsie, a heavy-set, bald man from Harlem. It was the first black
comic strip to receive national recognition. Harrington later wrote
about the birth of Bootsie: "I simply recorded the almost unbelievable
but hilarious chaos around me and came up with a character. I was
more surprised than anyone when Brother Bootsie became a Harlem celebrity."
During the 1930s Harrington became the first African American to establish
an international reputation in cartooning. Harrington's work appeared
in the Chicago Defender, The
People's Voice and the Pittsburgh
Courier. After the war Harrington also worked for the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Harrington's
cartoons often dealt with the subject of racism. He was particularly
concerned about what he believed was government apathy about legislation
against lynching.
In 1950 Harrington's political opinions brought him to the attention
of the FBI and Joseph
McCarthy. He decided to leave the country and went to live in
Paris. Later he moved to East Berlin but continued to send cartoons
to papers in the United States. As one critic commented: "sulphurous
political cartoons attacking institutionalized racism, mindless imperialism,
self-serving politicians, poverty, homelessness and bloated capitalists,
all drawn in a gritty, ragged-line coarse-hatched style perfectly
suited to the raw and painful bitterness of his ironic assault."
Harrington also wrote articles for American periodicals. Edited by
Thomas Inge, a collection of these, Why I
Left America: And Other Essays, was published in 1993.
The same year saw the appearance of a selection of his best cartoons,
Dark Laughter. Oliver Harrington
died in East Berlin on 2nd November, 1995.
Oliver Harrington, Bootsie (1960)
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