Aaron McGruder
The birth of Aaron McGruder in 1974 is celebrated on this date. He is a Black cartoonist and social commentator through the media.
Born in Chicago, McGruder and his family moved to Columbia, MD, when he was six. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts in Afro-American Studies and a concentration in social and cultural analysis. As a journalistic artist, his comic strip, “The Boondocks,” debuted in the campus newspaper, The Diamondback, in late 1996. The material was entertaining and filled with social and political commentary, so much so that it was yanked from the public in the months following the 9/11 attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and D.C.
In 2002, McGruder was awarded the "Chairman's Award" at the NAACP Image Awards. Additionally, USA Today has called McGruder "the most dangerous black man" and compared his voice (message) to Langston Hughes. McGruder is creative, driven, and astute. A frequent public speaker on political and cultural issues, McGruder delivered a keynote speech at H2K2 (a hacker conference) in 2002, where he criticized the George Bush administration, corporate-controlled mass media, political corruption, financial scandals, and U.S. foreign policy.
He now lives in Los Angeles, working on projects that include animating The Boondocks. He is also the co-author of a graphic novel, Birth of a Nation, published in 2004
Birth of a Nation,
A Comic Novel Written by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin
Illustrated by Kyle Baker
copyright July 2005, Crown Books I
SBN 0-4000-4859-1
