Editing Chester Commodore (section)

== Career ==
While studying at [[Tilden Technical High School]], he continued to practice art. After graduation, he worked various odd jobs to support himself, including as a chauffeur and a mechanic, and got a job with the [[Pullman Company]]. He was always drawing, and posted his drawings on company bulletin boards. American lawyer and comics writer James Rice was impressed by Commodore's work and recommended him as an artist to the ''[[Minneapolis Star]]'' in 1938, and the newspaper offered Commodore a job. However, the job offer was rescinded after he arrived, as the staff had been unaware that he was African-American.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Black Comics p102">{{Cite book|last1=Howard|first1=Sheena|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wec2DwAAQBAJ&q=chester+commodore&pg=PT102|title=Encyclopedia of Black Comics|last2=Priest|first2=Christopher|date=2017-09-15|publisher=Fulcrum Publishing|isbn=978-1-68275-168-8|language=en |page=102}}</ref>

In 1948 a national printers' strike led to a job opening at ''[[The Chicago Defender]]'', where he excelled despite having no prior experience as a printer.<ref name="Otfinoski p43">{{Cite book|last=Otfinoski|first=Steven|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcWHdpRoDkUC&q=chester+commodore&pg=PA43|title=African Americans in the Visual Arts|date=2014-05-14|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0777-6|pages=43|language=en}}</ref> doing layout, but soon started drawing cartoons for the paper. His first strip, in 1948, was called ''The Sparks.'' He took over [[Jay Jackson (artist)|Jay Jackson]]'s strip ''Bungleton Green'' in the early 1950s and contributed to the cartoon features ''The Ravings of Professor Doodle'' and ''So What?''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Inge, M. Thomas.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/778622719|title=Dark Laughter : the Satiric Art of Oliver W. Harrington.|date=2012|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-283-45505-3|oclc=778622719}}</ref> When Jay Jackson died in 1954, shortly before the landmark Supreme Court case [[Brown v. Board of Education]], Commodore took over his role drawing editorial cartoons for the paper.<ref name="Jackson p115">{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Tim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CeDeCwAAQBAJ&q=chester+commodore&pg=PT115|title=Pioneering Cartoonists of Color|date=2016-04-21|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-4968-0480-8|language=en |page=115}}</ref>

After the [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]] in 1968, Commodore began to focus more broadly on the social issues facing the African American community, including poverty, and exclusion from politics.<ref name="MTS U Chicago">{{Cite web|url=http://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/collections/findingaids/index.php?eadid=MTS.commodore|title=Guide to the Chester Commodore Papers, 1914-2004|website=mts.lib.uchicago.edu|access-date=2020-02-28}}</ref> From 1974 he drew a weekly full-page caricature for the cover of the ''Defender'''s weekly arts supplement, ''Accent''. The series lasted for more than five years. While working at ''The Defender'', Commodore took artist [[Marie Antoinette Merriweather]] under his wing, and she later went on to found her own company, Teddy Bear Graphics.<ref name="Jackson p115" />