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

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

and an outspoken advocate against

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

and for

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Of multi-ethnic descent,

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

called him "America's greatest

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

". Harrington requested

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

in 1961; he lived in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

for the last three decades of his life.

Biography

Early life

Born to Herbert and Euzsenie Turat Harrington in

Valhalla, New York Valhalla is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name was in ...

, Harrington was the oldest of five children. He began cartooning to vent his frustrations about a viciously racist sixth-grade teacher and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

in 1929.

Cartooning career

Immersing himself in the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

, Harrington found employment when

Ted Poston Ted Poston (July 4, 1906 – January 11, 1974) was an American journalist and author. He was one of the first African-American journalists to work on a mainstream white-owned newspaper, the ''New York Post''. Poston is often referred to as the "De ...

, city editor for the ''

Amsterdam News The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving New York City. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward African Americans in the United States and has published columns by s ...

'' 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. Harrington described him as "a jolly, rather well-fed but soulful character." During this period, Harrington enrolled in Fine Arts at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

to complete his degree, but could not finish because of the United States entry into World War II. 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.

Civil rights

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the '' Pittsburgh Courier'' sent Harrington as a correspondent to Europe and North Africa. In Italy, he met Walter White, executive secretary of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

. After the war, White hired Harrington to develop the organization's

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

department, where he became a visible and outspoken advocate for civil rights. In that capacity, Harrington published "Terror in Tennessee," a controversial expose of increased

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

violence in the post-WWII South. Given the publicity garnered by his sensational critique, Harrington was invited to debate with

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Tom C. Clark Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1967. Clark ...

on the topic of "The Struggle for Justice as a World Force." He confronted Clark for the U.S. government's failure to curb

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

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

and the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

. Hoping to avoid further government scrutiny, Harrington moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1951. In Paris, Harrington joined a thriving community of African-American expatriate writers and artists, including

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

, Chester Himes, and Richard Wright, who became a close friend.

Germany

Harrington was shaken by Richard Wright's death in 1960, suspecting that he was assassinated. He thought that the American embassy had a deliberate campaign of harassment directed toward the expatriates. In 1961, he requested

.Greene, Larry A. and Anke Ortlepp (eds.) (2011)
''Germans and African Americans: Two Centuries of Exchange''
Jackson, Mississippi: University of Mississippi Press. . p. xiv. He spent the rest of his life in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

, finding plentiful work and a cult following. He illustrated and contributed to publications such as '' Eulenspiegel'', '' Das Magazin'', and the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

''.

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

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

Exhibitions

* 2021–2022 ''"Dark Laughter Revisited: The Life and Times of Ollie Harrington"'' ( Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio)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).

References

External links

The African-American RegistryOliver Harrington Biography, The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and GermanyBibliography
at The Comics Reporter * FBI file on Ollie Harrington {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrington, Ollie 1912 births 1995 deaths Activists for African-American civil rights African-American artists African-American comics creators American comics creators American defectors American editorial cartoonists American expatriates in France People from Valhalla, New York American expatriates in East Germany American emigrants to East Germany DeWitt Clinton High School alumni 20th-century African-American people