Oliver Wendell “Ollie” Harrington was born in 1912 in the Bronx, New York. Initially, he began cartooning as a means for venting his frustrations over his viciously racist sixth grade teacher. After graduating from the Textile High School in Manhattan in 1931, he went to the National Academy of Design. Then from 1936 to 1940 he attend the School of Art at Yale University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Harrington immersed himself in the Harlem Renaissance. Ted Poston, the city editor for Amsterdam News, later learned of Harrington's skills as a cartoonist and political satirist and offered him a job.
In 1935, Harrington created the regular single panel cartoon, Dark Laughter, for the publication. The strip was later retitled Bootsie, after its most famous character, an African-American dealing with urban life and racism in Harlem. Around 1941, Harrington started the publication of Jive Gray (1941-1951), an adventure comic about an eponymous African-American aviator. Throughout World War II, Harrington wrote as a war correspondent in Europe and North Africa. After meeting Walter White, executive secretary for the NAACP, Harrington was hired to organize their public relations department.
Frustrated by the rasim in the U.S., Harrington moved to Paris, France. While there he joined a community of African-American writers and artists, including James Baldwin, Chester Himes, and Richard Wright. There they could explore their creativity without sociopolitical issues, often at the Cafe Tournon, where he met Wright and Himes.
Following Wright's passing in 1961, he moved on to East Berlin to illustrate classic novels. He remained in East Berlin for the rest of his life, enjoying plentiful work and gaining a cult following. While there he contributed to publications such as Eulenspiegel and Das Magazine. Harrington passed away on November 2, 1995.
Harrington also had four children, two of his daughters are U.S. nationals while the third is a British national. His youngest child, a son, is a German journalist.
Scoop would like to thank M. Thomas Inge for contributions to this article.
