Clint Cornelius Wilson Sr. (1914 – September 18, 2005) was an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

editorial

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

for the

Los Angeles Sentinel The ''Los Angeles Sentinel'' is a weekly African-American owned newspaper published in Los Angeles, California. The paper boasted of reaching 125,000 readers , making it one of the oldest, largest and most influential African-American newspaper ...

, the most prominent Black owned newspaper in California.

Early life

Wilson was born in a

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

in rural

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, one of 16 children of a

sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...

. By the age of seven, Wilson was already an avid artist and by age twelve, he determined that he would be an illustrator. This ambition was supported by his family until they realized that he intended to make a living off of cartooning. Deemed by his father to be a "white man's profession", Wilson's dreams were put on hold until he received the support of a high school teacher, who bought him materials.

Career

Moving to San Antonio after graduation from high school, Wilson found it difficult to secure work due to segregation. This led to Wilson working as a sports cartoonist for the '' San Antonio Register'' for free for four years beginning in 1940. For him, the experience was as valuable as money. In 1946, he moved to Oakland, California where he worked for the California Quarter Mater Depot while freelancing for the ''Oakland Post Inquirer''. He began working for the ''

'' in 1956, initially as a sports cartoonist. Of his role at the Sentinel, Wilson said, "The Sentinel must have hired me because they got tired of being pestered. I went back with cartoon after cartoon for ten years." He became the paper's editorial cartoonist and worked in that position until his 2002 retirement. In 1990, he was inducted into the Black Press Hall of Fame at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

. While working at the Sentinel, Wilson also worked for a company that created hand-painted T-shirts and as a janitor for

Security Pacific Bank Security Pacific National Bank (SPNB) was a large U.S. bank headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was acquired by Bank of America in 1992. History On September 1, 1868, Hellman, Temple and Co. opened their first bank branch in Los ...

to generate extra income. In a 1991 interview, Wilson states, "Now, here was segregation again...the only thing Blacks could do at that time was be a janitor, elevator operator, or parking attendant." With segregation waning in the west, Wilson was able to apply for a job within the bank's corporate trust department, which he secured. He retired from that position in 1979. Wilson's cartoons were also published in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

based

Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical organization, the NOI is committed to black nationalism and focuses its attention on the Afr ...

periodical '' The Final Call'', Rockford's Bible Force and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''.

Legacy

Wilson was honored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. His son Clint Cornelius Wilson, II became a journalist and educator and was chair of

's journalism department. His grandson Clint Cornelius Wilson, III works in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, CA. He is a writer and director.

References

External links

''Mercury News'' - "Clint C. Wilson Sr., longtime LA Sentinel cartoonist, dies at 90"
(registration required)
KLTV - "Longtime LA Sentinel cartoonist, dies at 90"
2005 deaths 1914 births American editorial cartoonists American sports cartoonists African-American editorial cartoonists {{US-cartoonist-stub