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# Online Museum Celebrates Pioneering Black Animation
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/online-museum-celebrates-pioneering-black-animation/
- Published: 2013-12-26T18:37:17.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:48:27.000Z
- Description: Think of trailblazing black TV shows, and The Cosby Show immediately comes to mind. But before the Cliff Huxtable, there was Fat Albert, Bill Cosby's beloved animated creation that became famous for his catchphrase, "Hey, hey, hey!"
- Author: Jillian Steinhauer
- Tags: Opinion, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

![An ad for "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" (via Museum of UnCut Funk)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/fat-albert-ad.jpg)

An ad for “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” (via Museum of UnCut Funk)

Think of trailblazing black TV shows, and *The Cosby Show* immediately comes to mind. But before the Cliff Huxtable, there was Fat Albert, Bill Cosby’s beloved animated creation that became famous for his catchphrase, “Hey, hey, hey!” [*Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat%5FAlbert%5Fand%5Fthe%5FCosby%5FKids?ref=hyperallergic.com) began airing in 1972, around the same time that other cartoons and animated shows finally began featuring black characters that weren’t all embodiments of negative stereotypes. “It wasn’t until the early 1970’s that Saturday Morning television cartoons started to feature image affirming Black characters with a modern look and positive story lines that delivered culturally relevant messages,” writes Pamela Thomas, aka Sista ToFunky, on the website of her online [Museum of UnCut Funk](http://museumofuncutfunk.com/2011/10/04/black-animation-colection/?ref=hyperallergic.com).

The museum, which I discovered thanks to a recent [NPR story](http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/12/24/256555149/hey-hey-hey-historian-draws-attention-to-70s-black-animation-art?ref=hyperallergic.com), is a treasure trove of African-American pop cultural artifacts and ephemera, from [Blaxploitation movie posters](http://museumofuncutfunk.com/2011/10/07/blaxploitation-movie-poster-art/?ref=hyperallergic.com) to [black comic books](http://museumofuncutfunk.com/2011/10/04/black-comic-book-collection/?ref=hyperallergic.com). Perhaps the most extensive is the [black animation collection](http://museumofuncutfunk.com/2011/10/04/black-animation-colection/?ref=hyperallergic.com), which includes extensive explanatory texts, YouTube links, and original production cels and drawings. Thomas, who has a degree in black history from City College and is a former art dealer, focuses not just on shows with all-black casts, like *Fat Albert* and *The Jackson 5ive* cartoon, but on black characters that popped up in other shows, like *Josie and the Pusscats*’ Valerie Brown, whom she dubs the “first positive Black female character in a Saturday morning cartoon series”; and the “first Black male superhero character in a Saturday morning cartoon,” *Schoolhouse Rock*’s Verb (“I can question like: What is it? / Verb, you’re so demanding,” the song goes).

![Production cel for "Schoolhouse Rock! Verb! That's What's Happening" episode](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/schoolhouserock-verb-cel.jpg)

Production cel for “Schoolhouse Rock! Verb! That’s What’s Happening” episode (via Museum of UnCut Funk)

The Museum of UnCut Funk is an internet rabbit hole that you can (and should) easily get lost in for hours. It has no physical home yet, but I can only hope it will one day. In the meantime, Thomas has organized a physical exhibition, [*Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution*](http://museumofuncutfunk.com/2012/01/08/funky-turns-40-black-character-revolution-animation-exhibition/?ref=hyperallergic.com), focused on black characters in Saturday morning cartoons. It opens at New York’s [Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture](http://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg?ref=hyperallergic.com) in February, and will travel to Chicago’s [DuSable Museum of African American History](http://www.dusablemuseum.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and Seattle’s [Northwest African American Museum](http://www.naamnw.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) afterwards.