By: E&P Staff An exhibit of the work of Pittsburgh Courier editorial cartoonist Sam Milai (1908-1970) will run through Dec. 31 at Ohio State University's Cartoon Research Library.
Milai worked for the Courier -- an influentional African-American newspaper -- for 33 years. Unfortunately, much of Milai's original work was destroyed in a fire. The cartoons in the exhibit were found by his granddaughter in a suitcase in her mother's attic and donated to the Cartoon Research Library. The Milai collection also includes correspondence, clippings, and photographs.
The show focuses on Milai's work during the last seven years of his life. These cartoons, said the library, give people in 2008 a "sense of both the hopes and the frustrations that the African-American community experienced during the 1960s."
Milai was an admirer of Lyndon Johnson, and some of his pro-Johnson cartoons are housed in the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.
The award-winning Milai also did a comic strip for the Courier in the late 1930s, created a series that celebrated the accomplishments of people of color, taught part time at Pittsburgh's Ivey School of Professional Art in the 1960s, and was teaching full-time at the Pittsburgh Art Institute at the time of his death.
On Oct. 27, Milai's work will be discussed at Ohio State by Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and African-American and African Studies Dr. Rebecca Wanzo. The event is free and open to the public.
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