Chester Commodore

Chester Commodore (August 22, 1914 – April 10, 2004) was an African-American cartoonist who made political cartoons and comic strips.

Chester Commodore
Born
Chesterfield Commodore

(1914-08-22)August 22, 1914
DiedApril 10, 2004(2004-04-10) (aged 89)
Colorado Springs
NationalityAmerican
OccupationCartoonist
Years active1938–2004
StylePolitical cartoons, editorial cartoons, comic strips
Spouse(s)
Marie Ruby Bazel
(
m. 1930⁠–⁠1954)
Marie Ruby Bazel
​
(
m. 1955; died 1990)
Children
Chesterfield Commodore Jr.
  • Philip Joseph Commodore

Early life

Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Commodore was a descendant of Peter D. Thomas, a former slave and the first African-American elected official in Wisconsin. His parents and sisters moved to Chicago in 1923, but Chester and his older brother stayed in Racine with his maternal grandmother in her boarding house until he moved to Chicago in 1927.[1] Commodore developed an interest in comics and art at an early age, and was encouraged by his uncle John Prophet. While living with his grandmother, he had the opportunity to meet prominent African-American musicians and entertainers who were turned away from white-owned hotels and restaurants in the Chicago and Milwaukee area.[2]

Career

While studying at Tilden Technical High School, he continued to practice art. After graduation he worked various odd jobs to support himself, including as a chauffeur and a mechanic, and got a job with the Pullman Company. He was always drawing, and posted his drawings on company bulletin boards. American lawyer and comic writer James Rice was impressed by Commodore's work and recommended him as an artist to the Minneapolis Star in 1938, and the newspaper offered Commodore a job. However, the job offer was rescinded after he arrived, as the staff had been unaware that he was African-American.[3] During the 1930s, he married Marie "Ruby" Bazel, with whom he had two sons; Chesterfield Commodore Jr. and Philip Joseph Commodore. He returned to Chicago in 1940, where he worked as a porter.[3]

In 1948 a national printers' strike led to a job opening at the Defender, where he excelled despite having no prior experience as a printer.[4] doing layout, but soon started drawing cartoons for the paper. His first strip, in 1948, was called The Sparks. He took over Jay Jackson's strip Bungleton Green in the early 1950s and contributed to the cartoon features The Ravings of Professor Doodle and So What?.[5] When Jay Jackson died in 1954, shortly before the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, Commodore took over his role drawing editorial cartoons for the paper.[6] In 1955 Commodore remarried to Mattye Marcia Buchanan.[3]

After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Commodore began to focus more broadly on the social issues facing the African American community, including poverty, and exclusion from politics.[7] From 1974 he drew a weekly full-page caricature for the cover of the Defender's weekly arts supplement, Accent. The series lasted for more than five years. While working at The Defender, Commodore took artist Marie Antoinette Merriweather under his wing, and she later went on to found her own company, Teddy Bear Graphics.[6]

Later life and death

Commodore and his wife retired to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1981, but rom 1992 he resumed work for the Defender, contributing a weekly cartoon until his death in 2004.[8] Commodore also appeared in the 1998 documentary The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, directed by Stanley Nelson Jr..

Legacy

Throughout his career, Commodore portrayed African-Americans in a humanizing dignified way, and his work is widely considered to have been a major step away from racial stereotyping of African-Americans, particularly in comics.[7] Commodore's step-daughter Lorin Nails-Smoote donated the Chester Commodore Papers, which included original artwork, letters, photographs and awards to the Chicago Public Library in 2007. The following year, a free public exhibition titled "Chester Commodore, 1914-2004: The Work and Life of a Pioneering Cartoonist of Color" opened at the library.[9]

Awards and honours

Over the course of his career, Commodore won awards for his work as a comic strip artist and editor, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize 12 times.[4]

List of awards
Year Award Association
1980 Achievement Award Lu Palmer Foundation
1978 Best Cartoon National Newspaper Publishers Association
1977 Best Cartoon National Newspaper Publishers Association
1976 Gold Medallion Award for Cartooning Cartoonist PROfiles Magazine
Best Cartoon National Newspaper Publishers Association
Achievement Award National Conference of Christians and Jews
1975 Best Cartoon National Newspaper Publishers Association
1974 Best Cartoon National Newspaper Publishers Association
1973 Achievement Award Chicago Newspaper Guild
Best Editorial Cartoonist of the Year[3] Cartoonist PROfiles Magazine
Best Cartoon National Newspaper Publishers Association
1972 Best Cartoon National Newspaper Publishers Association

Exhibitions
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References
  1. "Commodore, Chester, Sr". Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-38543;jsessionid=c1652bf40e7ec3f03932bb4bba137f16. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
  2. "Chester Commodore, a creative cartoonist". African American Registry. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  3. Howard, Sheena; Priest, Christopher (2017-09-15). Encyclopedia of Black Comics. Fulcrum Publishing. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-68275-168-8.
  4. Otfinoski, Steven (2014-05-14). African Americans in the Visual Arts. Infobase Publishing. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-4381-0777-6.
  5. Inge, M. Thomas. (2012). Dark Laughter : the Satiric Art of Oliver W. Harrington. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-283-45505-6. OCLC 778622719.
  6. Jackson, Tim (2016-04-21). Pioneering Cartoonists of Color. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-4968-0480-8.
  7. "Guide to the Chester Commodore Papers, 1914-2004". mts.lib.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
  8. "Guide to the Chester Commodore Papers, 1914-2004". University of Chicago. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  9. "Cartoonist Chester Commodore´s works displayed at Woodson". Chicago Defender. 2008-05-27. Retrieved 2020-02-28.


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