Bessye J. Bearden - Club Woman, Social Worker (1943), an OWI profile by Charles Alston

Bessye J. Bearden - Club Woman, Social Worker is a 1943 Office of War Information cartoon by Charles Alston. A pencil portrait and three small scenes profile a New York deputy collector of internal revenue, her club work, and her wartime volunteering (NAID 535628).

What the drawing says

This is a pencil drawing, not a printed poster. A portrait of Bessye J. Bearden sits with three small scenes, and each scene has a short caption. The captions cover three parts of her record: her club work, a federal appointment, and her volunteering during the war. The sheet is signed "Alston OWI."

BESSYE J. BEARDEN

CLUB WOMAN, SOCIAL WORKER

ONE OF THE MOST ACTIVE CLUB WOMEN IN AMERICA, SHE WAS FOR YEARS A PROGRESSIVE LEADER AND FIGHTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NEGRO WOMEN.

SHE WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY NEGRO WOMAN TO BE APPOINTED DEPUTY COLLECTOR OF INTERNAL REVENUE SERVING SINCE 1935 IN THE THIRD DISTRICT, NEW YORK.

HER ONLY SON A MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES, SHE DEVOTED MUCH OF HER TIME TO WAR TIME ACTIVITIES, SUCH AS THE UNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATION AND CIVILIAN DEFENSE.

Alston OWI

Where it comes from

The National Archives keeps the drawing in Record Group 208, the Office of War Information, in a series catalogued as artworks and mockups for cartoons promoting the war effort (NAID 535594). The archive credits the artwork to Charles Alston. It lists the audience as the domestic public and tags the themes as gender, race and ethnicity, and the home front. Which newspapers printed the finished cartoon, if any did, is not recorded.

How to read it

The archive tags the technique as testimonial and then says the fit is weak, because Bearden is not quoted endorsing anything. That caution is right. The sheet does not put words in her mouth. It lists what she did and lets the record stand as an example.

What the government gained is plain enough. A Black woman with a federal post, a son in uniform, and much of her time given to the USO and civilian defense made the case that Black Americans were giving to the war effort. The drawing lists her record without inflating it. The same sheet also shows what it leaves out: the caption calls her "the first and only Negro woman" to hold that appointment, which is a record of exclusion as much as of achievement. The cartoon states the fact and does not comment on it.

Alston drew for the same office in 1942, when he made The Savior of the Darker Races, a cartoon about Japan's claims in Asia. Two posters on this site make the case for working together across race and ancestry in the war plants: United We Win and the 1942 Americans All. The Office of War Information hub covers the agency, and the Roosevelt administration essay places it in the government of the day.