March 1st

REPORTER: Adam EMAIL: adamsartexpose@gmail.com ADAMSARTEXPOSE’
A BLACK WOMAN CARTOONIST WHO ESTABLISHED A
SPECIAL VOICE FOR BLACK WOMEN
Considering recent Supreme Court
decisions in the U.S. women have been
losing their freedom of decision-making
in child rearing and personal health
care.
One Black woman, Barbara Brandon-
Croft had established a voice for Black
Women and in so doing for all women
regarding issues pertaining specifically to
the female agenda. Barbara Brandon-
Croft is the daughter of Brumsic Brandon
who was a newspaper cartoonist who
produced the cartoon strip Luther.
Luther was a nationally syndicated
comic strip about African American
children and the struggle for racial
equality. The title Luther was inspired by
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was last
published in 1986.
Barbara grew up watching her father
working on the kitchen table drawing
the Luther comic strips. She enjoyed
drawing and was recruited to add zip
atone coloring to her father’s comic
strips when she was in middle school.
It was not her intention to become
a cartoonist. One of her first jobs
was working for the Black women’s
magazine Essence. The editor liked her
drawings and hired her to do a monthly
cartoon. This is where the cartoon strip,
“Where I’m Coming From” originated.
Regrettably, the magazine went out of
business before her first cartoon was run.
The cartoon strip was composed of nine
characters who were primarily talking
heads each with their own personality.
The actual first publication of Barbara’s
comic strip was in the Detroit Free Press
and was then picked up by Universal
Press Syndicate and was found in
newspapers in the U.S., Canada, South
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