Jackie Ormes became the first African American female cartoonist with the debut of her strip, Torchy Brown, in 1937.
On June 25, 1937, Jackie Ormes debuted her comic strip Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem in the Pittsburgh Courier. This marked her as the first African American female cartoonist, breaking new ground in a field dominated by men. The strip featured the adventures of Torchy Brown, a young African American woman navigating the complexities of life in New York's Harlem. Through humor and keen social insight, Ormes tackled issues of race and gender, paving the way for future generations of minority artists in comics.