Ollie Harrington

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Ollie Harrington
BornOliver Wendell Harrington
(1912-02-14)February 14, 1912
Valhalla, New York
DiedNovember 2, 1995(1995-11-02) (aged 83)
Berlin, Germany
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Cartoonist
Notable works
Dark Laughter / Bootsie
Cartoon about South Africa

Oliver Wendell Harrington (February 14, 1912 – November 2, 1995) was an

political asylum in East Germany in 1961; he lived in Berlin
for the last three decades of his life.

Biography

Early life and education

Born to Herbert and Euzsenie Turat Harrington in Valhalla, New York, Harrington was the oldest of five children. As the son of an African-American father and Jewish mother from Budapest, Oliver Harrington grew up in a diverse community within South Bronx.[2] He began cartooning to vent his frustrations about a viciously racist sixth-grade teacher[3] and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx in 1929.

Harrington later continued his educational career at Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in Fine arts in 1940.[4]

Cartooning career

Immersing himself in the

Amsterdam News, became aware of Harrington's already considerable skills as a cartoonist and political satirist. In 1935, Harrington created Dark Laughter, a regular single-panel cartoon, for that publication. The strip was later retitled Bootsie, after its most famous character, an ordinary African American dealing with racism in the U.S.[5] Harrington described him as "a jolly, rather well-fed but soulful character." During this period, Harrington enrolled in Fine Arts at Yale University
to complete his degree.

On October 18, 1941, he started publication of Jive Gray (1941–1951), a weekly adventure comic strip about an eponymous African-American aviator; the strip went on until Harrington moved to Paris.

After World War II, Oliver Harrington was employed by the NAACP in order to assist with a public relations campaign to help returning Black veterans. This was important because Black veterans, as a group, had been ostracized upon returning home. Unfortunately, Harrington's political views did not align with those of the NAACP and he left the organization in 1947.[3] After this, he resumed his career as a political activist and cartoonist by bringing the "Bootsie" series back to life in the Courier.[6]

Civil rights

During

Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP. After the war, White hired Harrington to develop the organization's public relations department, where he became a visible and outspoken advocate for civil rights.[3]

In that capacity, Harrington published "Terror in Tennessee," a controversial expose of increased

U.S. Attorney General Tom C. Clark on the topic of "The Struggle for Justice as a World Force."[3] He confronted Clark for the U.S. government's failure to curb lynching
and other racially motivated violence.

France

In 1947, Harrington left the NAACP and returned to cartooning. In the postwar period, his prominence and social activism brought him scrutiny from the

James Baldwin, Chester Himes, and Richard Wright, who became a close friend.[7]

Germany

Harrington was shaken by Richard Wright's death in 1960,

Personal life

Harrington had four children. Two daughters are U.S. nationals; a third is a British national. All were born before Harrington emigrated to East Berlin. His youngest child, a son, was born several years after Harrington married Helma Richter, a German journalist.

Publications

  • — (1993). Inge, M. Thomas (ed.). Dark Laughter: The Satiric Art of Oliver W. Harrington. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
  • — (1993). Inge, M. Thomas (ed.). Why I Left America and Other Essays. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
  • —; Sterling, Philip; Redding, J. Saunders (1965). Laughing on the Outside: The Intelligent White Reader's Guide to Negro Tales and Humor. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
  • — (1958). Bootsie and Others: A Selection of Cartoons. New York: Dodd, Mead.
  • —; Tarry, Ellen (1955). Hezekiah Horton. Viking Press.
  • — (1946). Terror in Tennessee: The Truth about the Columbia Outrages. New York: "Committee of 100".

Exhibitions

Further reading

  • "Harrington, Oliver W.". American National Biography. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
  • Oliver W. Harrington. Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 9. Gale Research. 1995.
  • Oliver W. Harrington. Notable Black American Men. Gale Research. 1998.

References

  1. ^ "Cartoons by the late Ollie Harrington tell it like it was - and is," Ebony Magazine, February 1996.
  2. ^ "Oliver Harrington". aacvr-germany.org. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  3. ^ a b c d Jones, Kassidi, ed. (Jan 2024). "How Ollie Was Born". The Harrington Revolution. Vol. 1, no. 1.
  4. ^ Oliphint, Joel. "Ollie Harrington's dark humor and overlooked, remarkable life on display at OSU". Columbus Monthly. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  5. ^ Jones, Kassidi, ed. (Jan 2024). "DARK LAUGHTER: Bootise and Friends". The Harrington Revolution. Vol. 1, no. 1.
  6. ^ "Oliver W. Harrington biography". Black Heritage Commemorative Society. Black History Now. 2011-09-09. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  7. ^ a b c Jones, Kassidi, ed. (Jan 2024). "The 'Black Renaissance'". The Harrington Revolution. Vol. 1, no. 1.
  8. . p. xiv.
  9. ^ Oliphint, Joel. "Ollie Harrington's dark humor and overlooked, remarkable life on display at OSU: 'Dark Laughter Revisited: The Life and Times of Ollie Harrington' is on view at Ohio State's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and it's a must-see," Columbus Alive (Jan. 7, 2022).

External links