Tom Feelings photographs

1910s-2000s

This biographical note was written in 2022 by Lauren Stark (edited by Nathan Evans in 2024).

Tom Feelings was born on May 19, 1933 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He began drawing at a young age, and attended the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City from 1951 to 1953 (the institution was renamed School of Visual Arts in 1956). Feelings subsequently served in the United States Air Force from 1953 to 1957 as an illustrator for its Graphics Division in London, England. After his service, he resumed studying at the School of Visual Arts and created the comic strip, Tommy Traveler in the World of Negro History, which was published in the Harlem-based weekly newspaper, The New York Age. The strip was reprinted in a 1991 book to critical acclaim.

From 1959 to 1964, Feelings worked as a freelance artist. He illustrated a comic pamphlet on voter registration for the NAACP titled The Street Where You Live, and his drawings accompanied feature articles in Look magazine and The Reporter. After a Look assignment in New Orleans inspired Feelings to shift his focus to children's books, he visited schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, encouraging children to draw.

In 1964, Feelings moved to Ghana and worked as an illustrator for African Review Magazine and taught illustration at the government's publishing house. Upon returning to the United States in 1966, he illustrated books of African stories, including Bola and the Oba's Drummers (1967), The Tuesday Elephant (1968), and Black Folktales (1969). In 1971, the government of Guyana invited Feelings to work as a consultant and teacher for its Ministry of Education; he trained young artists in textbook illustration and oversaw the creation of children's books. During this time, Feelings collaborated with his then-wife, Muriel Feelings, on three children's books: Zamani Goes to Market (1970), Jambo Means Hello (1971), and Moja Means One: A Swahili Counting Book (1974), the latter two of which were named Caldecott Honor Books. He also published his autobiography, Black Pilgrimage, in 1972.

Feelings returned to the United States in 1974. He went on to write and/or illustrate several renowned books, including Something on My Mind (1978), for which he won the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration; Daydreamers (1981), which received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award; Now Sheba Sings the Song with Maya Angelou (1987); and Soul Looks Back in Wonder (1993) with thirteen different poets, which won the Coretta Scott King Award for Children's Literature. Feelings' best-known work is The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo, published in 1995 with an introduction by historian John Henrik Clarke. The book, a wordless narrative comprising sixty-four black-and-white paintings, took Feelings years to complete. It depicts the horrors of the forced journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean, and won Feelings his fourth Coretta Scott King Award.

Feelings received many other awards and citations, including an honorary doctorate from the School of Visual Arts in 1996. A documentary based on his life, Head and Heart, was released in 1977 and won the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame awards for Best Overall Film and Best Documentary. Additionally, Feelings exhibited his work nationally and internationally throughout his career; published articles in the Journal of African Children's and Youth Literature and The Horn Book Magazine; contributed to publications such as Junior Great Books and Talking with Artists; and served on various boards and committees, including the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage and National Conference of Artists. His artwork is held in the permanent collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem and Medgar Evers College.

In 1990, Feelings moved to South Carolina, where he was a professor of art at the University of South Carolina until 1996. He also served as a cultural specialist for the United States Information Service in 1998 in Thailand, where he led illustration workshops for students. Tom Feelings died of cancer in Mexico on August 25, 2003.