Al Hollingsworth’s Kandy: Race, Colorism, and Romance in African American Newspaper Comics

Al Hollingsworth, also known in various stages of his career as A. C. Hollingsworth, Alvin C. Hollingsworth, or Alvin Holly, was a founding member of Spiral, the influential African American art collective.¹ Spiral was established in 1963 in the New York City studio of the renowned American artist Romare Bearden, and its members sought to address civil rights concerns without being restricted by formulaic aesthetic strategies. In addition to Hollingsworth, its members included Charles Alston, Emma Amos, Norman Lewis, Richard Mayhew, and Hale Woodruff. Hollingsworth’s paintings and collages of the late 1950s through the ’70s included glyph-like cityscapes and images