*Jerry Pinkney was born on this date in 1939. He was a Black artist, illustrator, writer, and teacher of children's literature.
Jerry Pinkney was born in Philadelphia, PA. His parents were Williemae and James Pinkney; he was the middle child of five siblings. Pinkney struggled in school due to dyslexia but excelled at drawing, even at 4. During Pinkney's youth, his mother encouraged him to develop his skills by enrolling him in art classes. Pinkney worked at a local newspaper stand as an early teen, passing the time by drawing city life. His talent caught the eye of customer and cartoonist John Liney, who worked on the Henry comic strips and showed Pinkney how artistry could be used for commercial purposes.
He attended the Murrell Dobbins Vocational High School and met his future wife, Gloria Jean Pinkney. Pinkney graduated from Murrell Dobbins in 1957 and was granted a full scholarship to the Philadelphia Museum College of Art (now the University of the Arts). Pinkney only attended the Philadelphia College of Art for a few years, leaving to start a family. He and his wife have four children: Troy, Brian, Scott, and Myles. The family's six grandchildren all participate in the arts, continuing “the Pinkney tradition.”
In 1960, Pinkney began working for The Rust Craft Greeting Card Company and later at Barker-Black Studio, where he illustrated his first picture book, The Adventures of Spider: West African Folk Tales (1964), in collaboration with Joyce Cooper Arkhurst. A few years later, he and two other artists opened Kaleidoscope Studio.
Pinkney opened his freelance studio, Jerry Pinkney Studios, in 1968. During the 1970s, he worked on the Black Heritage Stamp Series for the United States Postal Service and collaborated with National Geographic Magazine and the National Park Service on the Underground Railroad. Pinkney was an educator who taught at colleges and universities like the University of Delaware, the Pratt Institute, and the University at Buffalo. In 1994, Pinkney obtained the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for the book John Henry.
In 2000, Pinkney received the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, and in 2004, he was awarded the University of Southern Mississippi Medallion for outstanding contributions to children's literature. In 2010, he received the Caldecott Medal for his book The Lion & the Mouse. His work was included in the 2015 exhibition We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s, at the Woodmere Art Museum. His book A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation (2019), illustrated by Pinkney and written by Barry Wittenstein, won the Orbis Pictus Award for 2020.
In 2016, Pinkney received the Coretta Scott King—Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lived in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, with his wife. Since 1964, Pinkney has illustrated over 100 books, usually in watercolors. His works address diverse themes. Jerry Pinkney died of a heart attack on October 20, 2021, in Sleepy Hollow, New York, at the age of 81.
