Oral history interview with Chester Commodore, 1972.

Biographical Note

Chester Commodore (1914-2004) was an African American cartoonist. Commodore was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and in 1948 he began working at the Chicago Defender. During his five decades with the Defender, Commodore contributed both comic strips and political cartoons to the newspaper.

Scope and Contents

Commodore discusses his early life, including his move to Chicago and his early relationship to drawing. He describes the jobs he held before becoming a cartoonist, including a job as an electromechanic for the Pullman Car Company. Other topics of discussion include: influential cartoonists; Commodore's work on the Chicago Defender’s Bungleton Green comic strip; how his drawing hobby became a career; and his Pulitzer Prize nominations.

Subjects

• African American cartoonists.
• African American press.
• Cartoonists--Interviews.
• Chicago (Ill.)--Newspapers.
• Chicago defender.
• Comic books, strips, etc.--United States.
• Commodore, Chester, 1914-2004--Interviews.
• Interviews.
• La Brie, Henry G., interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Oral histories (literary works)