African and African American children don’t have many opportunities to see themselves when watching cartoons or television programs aimed toward ages one-year-to-10 years old. Nigerian animator ...

the United States’ first African American woman pilot, in biographical cartoons. Despite a segregated military, black people contributed significantly to the war effort, serving bravely overseas ...

In this week’s Sunday Closer, NBC’s Kristen Welker sits down with Elizabeth Montague, who is the first known African American woman to have a cartoon published in the New Yorker.

It’s not widely known, but Esther Jones — a black Harlem singer who performed regularly at the Cotton Club as Baby Esther — was an inspiration for the beloved cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop.