Henry Jackson Lewis

Henry Jackson Lewis (c. 1857-April 1891) was the first African-American political cartoonist.

Early and Family Life Henry Jackson Lewis, "H.J.", was born a slave, around 1857, near Water Valley, the seat of Yalobusha County, Mississippi.

When he was a boy, he fell into a fire, which left his left eye blind and his left hand crippled.

In 1872, Lewis settled in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he worked as a laborer, and married Lavinia Dixon. He and Lavinia had seven children: John, Richard, Lillian, Elizabeth, Chester, Henry W., and Francine Louise.

Career H.J. Lewis sketches in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Apr. 21, 1883 "The National Executive Asleep" - Indianapolis Freeman, by H.J. Lewis. Oct. 19, 1889. The oldest known cartoons by H. J. Lewis were published in 1872. By 1879, H.J. was working as a freelance artist, selling drawings of city scenes, Arkansas River scenes, and Mississippi floodwaters to national publications such as Harper’s Weekly.

In November 1882, Dr. Edward Palmer of the Smithsonian Institution, ventured to the south to study prehistoric Native American land mounds as well as maps of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Palmer hired Lewis as an assistant. Lewis went on expeditions with Palmer to Avondale Mounds, near Greenville, Mississippi, where he sketched a large body of mound surveys. Lewis's drawings were published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, and helped to disproved the theory that the mounds were built by a "lost race" of non-Indian "Mound Builders, " though he did not receive formal acknowledgment for his work until nearly 100 years after he completed it. It is suspected that the economic pressures of The Freeman forced him to steer away from political drawings, as when his works reappeared, they were only humorous or general commentary about race relations, with exception of two illustrations that were indirectly critical of Harrison in December 1890 and January 1891. According to the Indianapolis Journal, when he died, he was about 35 years old.

Despite his inclusion at the Smithsonian, mention of Lewis is absent from most art history knowledge. However, more of his work has been unearthed by today's artists. Noted African American sculptor, Garland Martin Taylor, said of Lewis's work: