Jackie Ormes (1911-1985)
Monongahela, Washington County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The first nationally syndicated African American woman cartoonist in the US and the only one for decades. Beginning in 1937, her comics were published in black newspapers, the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender. Her Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo and Ginger characters were well-educated and fashionably dressed. They helped break down racial and gender stereotypes common in popular culture of the time. Ormes grew up in Monongahela.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Raised in Monongahela, Jackie Ormes became in 1937 the first nationally syndicated African American woman cartoonist, publishing in influential Black newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender. Her characters Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo — smart, stylish, and self-possessed — offered readers a pointed alternative to the demeaning caricatures of Black women that filled mainstream media. For decades she stood alone in her field.
Why it matters
Ormes used the comics page as a tool against racial and gender stereotypes, giving mid-century Black readers rare images of dignity and helping widen who got to tell stories in American popular culture.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Jackie Ormes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Daisy E. Lampkin
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 1983
Daisy Lampkin was one of the most formidable organizers of the twentieth-century Black freedom struggle, working from this Pittsburgh home. As the NAACP's National Field Secretary from 1935 to 1947, she was a fundraising and membership powerhouse who helped build the association into a mass movement, while also leading the Lucy Stone Civic League and helping charter the National Council of Negro Women. She was equally a force in Black journalism as a vice president of the influential Pittsburgh Courier.
Dorothy Mae Richardson (1922-1991)
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 2019
On Pittsburgh's North Side in 1968, community activist Dorothy Mae Richardson refused to watch her neighborhood decline. She founded Neighborhood Housing Services, a pioneering model in which residents themselves—not distant officials—drove the work of rehabilitating homes and reinvesting in their community. Her approach proved so effective that it spread nationwide and led to the creation of NeighborWorks America.
Homestead Grays
Homestead, PA · est. 2000
Founded by Homestead steelworkers around 1900, the Homestead Grays grew into one of the most dominant franchises in all of baseball history. Under the leadership of Cumberland Posey Jr., the Grays captured twelve national titles — including nine in a row from 1937 to 1945 — and fielded Hall of Famers like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, and Smokey Joe Williams. Playing in the segregated Negro Leagues, they were a source of fierce pride for African Americans in Pittsburgh and far beyond before disbanding in 1950.
Jane Grey Swisshelm
Edgewood, PA · est. 1959
Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884) lived and died at the homestead on this site, but her influence reached far beyond it. A fearless newspaper editor, she championed the abolition of slavery, women's rights, and temperance, and served as a nurse during the Civil War. She also chronicled her turbulent age in the memoir "Half a Century," writing at a time when few women held a public voice in American journalism.