James Pinckney Alley was born in Saline County, near Benton, Arkansas, in 1885.    He attended the public schools of Benton, graduating in 1903.  His first job was with a local pottery firm but he soon moved to Little Rock for better employment opportunities.  There he worked at a grocery store and began submitting drawings to newspapers and magazines.   In 1908 he became a commercial artist for the Cronk and Foster engraving company.  During the same year he married Nona Lane.  The couple had two sons, James Jr. and Calvin, and two daughters Elizabeth and Kathryn.

Saline Co. Courthouse

Benton School 1900-1

Pottery

Little Rock 1903-4

Cronk-Foster Bus.Card

James & Calvin

J. P. Jr + Sr

His art skills would appear to be self-taught with the exception of a correspondence course.  In 1909, the Alley family moved to Memphis, where Jim had found a job at the Bluff City Engraving Company.  It was in the same building as the Commercial Appeal newspaper and J. P. began doing free lance work for the paper.  In 1916 he began full time work at the paper, becoming the editorial cartoonist.  He found resource material for his inspirational cartoons in local and national politics and in World War 1.  Memphis Mayer E. H. Crump was the butt of many of his editorials.  During this early period Alley's technique, satire and humor developed tremendously.

J. P. Alley

Memphis 1909

Bluff City Engraving

C.A. Bldg.

Drawing Table

1920

Memphis Home

During an earlier job in Greenwood, Mississippi, Alley met former slave Tom Hunley, who cleaned the offices.  From that meeting, a character named "Hambone" was developed and in 1916 he began appearing in Alley's editorial cartoons.  Hambone was a wise and witty black man who became so popular that Alley created a separate cartoon which was syndicated as "Hambone Says." and later as "Hambones Meditations"  Hambone was disheveled in appearance, wide-eyed and frowning, with exaggerated large lips, looking every bit the representation of African Americans as seen by whites.  The dialogue was also a white version of black dialect.

Greenwood, Mississippi

Hambone

Editorial cartoonist?

An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. These cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or current affairs in a national or international context.  The artists generally adopt a caricaturist style of drawing to capture the likeness of a politician or subject. They may also employ humor or satire to ridicule an individual or a group.

In 1923, Alley was a major part of the Commercial Appeal's team who won the Pulitzer Prize  for Journalism "For its courageous attitude in the publication of cartoons and the handling of news in reference to the operations of the Ku Klux Klan".  The paper was not known as a crusader for the fair treatment of African Americans.  But in the 1920's they courageously took on the KKK, exposing its activities with a series of stories and lampooning the group with J. P. Alley's editorial cartoons.  His cartoons ridiculed the KKK as cowards hiding behind bed sheets.  One portrayed a man lashing a woman across her back with the text "His noble work done in the dark".

Pulitzer Prize  

The KKK members threatened Alley and he used their threats as fodder for more cartoons.  The Commercial Appeal won the Pulitzer Prize for its efforts.  C. P. J.  Mooney, editor of the paper said, "We are mighty proud of this Arkansas boy, and we are glad that the impact of his pencil is far reaching".

In addition to his newspaper work, J. P. Alley published two editions of a book of caricatures titled "Distinguished Folks" in 1924 and 1928.  A deluxe version was published in 1927.  And his earlier Hambones books continued to be reprinted.  But the Hambones books have now been suppressed due to their "raciist content" and of course when one is  discovered the price has gone through the roof.

1927

1917

1919

Books

1976

1977

1977

Distinguished Folks ...

Brooks Catalog

Review

After a lengthy illness, J. P. Alley died on April 16, 1934 and is buried at Memphis Memorial Park.  He was 49 years old.  His obituary read "... He had a fine sense of its (WW1) tragedies.  Patriotism and idealism spoke through his pen."  The Commercial Appeal ran extensive coverage of his death and funeral, including a moving editorial and editorial cartoon.

1934 Cartoon

J. P. Alley's Grave       

Calvin Lane Alley  was born in Memphis in 1915.  Like his father, he became the editorial cartoonist for the Commercial Appeal from 1945 until 1970.  Following art training in Memphis and Chicago (American Academy of Fine Arts, and Chicago Academy of Fine Art), Alley took his first full-time work as a cartoonist for the Kansas City (Mo.) Journal in 1939.  When the Journal folded in 1942, he relocated to the Nashville Banner.  Three years later he joined the Commercial Appeal to fill the position previously held by his father.  He remained with them until his retirement in 1965.

        Cal Alley

These signed, original 6 cartoons were discovered in the collection of Lee Kemter in 2017.  Until now, they had not been seen since their original publication. 

Editorial 1968

In 1954 Cal launched a comic strip:  "The Ryatts" and it was syndicated from 1954 to 1994.  There were five kids in this family  Missy, Kitty, Pam, Tad, and Winky.  Of course the inspiration for the strip came from Alley's own family of 5 kids.

The Ryatts

The Ryatts

The Ryatts

The Ryatts

Cal Alley received the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award in 1955, and like his father was inducted into the Tennessee Hall of Fame.   It honored those "...who have made an outstanding contribution to Tennessee Newspaper journalism or through Tennessee journalism, to newspaper journalism generally, or who have made an extraordinary contribution to their communities and region, or the state, through newspaper journalism".

Sigma Delta Chi Award

Hall of Fame

Cal Alley retired in 1965 and died of cancer in 1970.  He was 54 and burial was in Memphis Memorial Gardens.  The Cal Alley family donated the "Cal Alley Collection" to the Memphis Public Library.  It is made up of political cartoons all relating to the political life of Memphis and around the world, from 1939 to 1970.  The Ryatts strip was taken over by Jack Elrod and ran in syndication until 1994.  Cal's son Rick became a staff artist on the Commercial Appeal for many years.  He was particularly adept at caricatures and watercolors.

Obit

Obit NY Times

The character of Hambone was inspired by J. P. Alley’s encounter with a philosophical ex-slave, Tom Hunley, of Greenwood, Mississippi.  Hunley was cleaning the offices where Alley worked at the time.  The two bonded and Alley thought of cartoonist Kin Hubbard who had created the comic strip "Abe Martin" .  Abe was a  philosopher with a gift of gab.  He actually was created to be the mouthpiece for Kin himself to make observations about the social issues of the day.  The strip ran in newspapers during the first part of the 20th century.  So Alley created his own version of Abe Martin using Tom's likeness and mannerisms.  He named the character Hambone - but he was really J. P. Alley.

Hambone first appeared as a character in Alley's editorial cartoons in 1916.  But he became so popular that Alley created a separate syndicated cartoon named "Hambones Meditations".  Meditations became a huge success and was published in numerous papers across the country.  In 1919 Jahl *& Co published an entire book of Hambones Meditations.  For many years the Hambone panel ran on the first page of the Commercial Appeal.

Hambone

Yes'm! Yes, ma'am! Mr. J.P. really did stay here in Greenwood once. You say you heard dat an' didn't know whether to believe or not? Well, yes ma'am he was here sho nuff. Dat's been somethin' like twenty-five year ago. He had a office over de Crumont --- does you remember de Crumont? You mus' have been jest a li'l chile when it closed up. Well, upstairs, dat was where Mr. J.P. had his office --- leastways his li'l room where he did his drawin' at. Twan't no regular office. I cleant up that place in dem days, an' I come trompin' up de stairs wit my mop an' bucket de fust time Mr. J.P. ever seed me. He cotch one glimpse of me, an' he jump an' holler: "Bless goodness, uncle! You stand right there 'til I can git yo' picture." Den he hole up his fingers like dis and squinch he eye at me, and fus' thing I knowed he had my picture. "

Hambone

   First Page...

Although the Hambone character was beloved by some, he was an example of the caricatures of older black men that were common during the Jim Crow years.  African Americans knew it was time to stop using this caricature that was ridiculed and laughed at.  During the garbage strike of 1968, the protesters chanted, "Hambone just go".  They no longer wanted to be laughed at.  This pressure from various Civil Rights groups brought the long-run cartoon to an end in 1968.

Hambone Just go - 1968

This brings to mind a uniquely American form of artistic expression - The Minstrel Show.  It was originally created and shaped by white performers, some in blackface, playing to white audiences.  It featured a mix of song, dance, sketch comedy, and stand up comedy.  And African American culture was part of its appeal from the beginning.  The biggest debt to African American culture was in dance. Minstrel Shows later became one of the few ways that actual black performers were seen by a large audience (Indeed some black performers performed in black face to disguise this fact).  And most audiences of the day saw minstrel shows as harmless good fun.  Attitudes began to shift during the Civil War.  By the turn of the twentieth century, Minstrel Shows had been largely supplanted by Vaudeville.

Hambone memorabilia is very collectible IF you can find it, because it has generally been suppressed.  Of course that's the surest way to may anything more desirable.  The Hambone 5 cent cigar advertising is a satire on Lindberg's 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic (Note USA on the left and the Eiffel Tower on the right).  Beware!  There are also some fake collectibles out there.

Hambone's Meditations

 Clock        

Rick Alley

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