Collection: Floyd Norman: The Animator Who Re-Drew the Color Lines of Imagination
(On Display: Autographed Mickey Mouse Sketch & Autographed Pop Funko Mickey Mouse)
When you gaze at this artifact, remember: Black creativity didn’t knock on the door of animation; it kicked it wide open with Floyd Norman’s pen in hand.
Floyd Norman (b. 1935) is not just an animator. He is a Black American trailblazer, the first Black artist hired by Walt Disney Studios, and a living legend whose storytelling reshaped the world of animation, from the shadows of segregation into the full light of Black brilliance.
I declare without hesitation: Floyd Norman didn’t just draw cartoons. He drew a new future, where Black boys and girls could see their reflections not as sidekicks or stereotypes, but as central characters in the magic of make-believe.
Norman entered Disney’s doors in the 1950s, during an era when Jim Crow still had its grip on America and racial lines were deeply etched into every institution, including Hollywood. But this man from Santa Barbara, armed with talent, patience, and pride in who he was, worked on films like Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, and 101 Dalmatians, shaping childhoods across generations. And later, at Hanna-Barbera, he helped bring shows like The Smurfs and Scooby-Doo to life.
But Floyd Norman didn’t stop at drawing the fantasy—they tried to box him into silence, and he used his cartoons as tools of truth. He launched his own company to create films and comics that celebrated Black culture and told our stories with dignity and depth. In every frame he drew, he pushed back against erasure. In every laugh he sparked, he reminded America: we belong in joy, too.
His pen was his protest. His animation was activism.
Norman not only carved out a space for Black artists in an industry that had none: he mentored, uplifted, and cleared the path for a new generation of animators, storytellers, and creatives who now walk freely because he walked first.
This artifact, whether an ink sketch, autographed Mickey Mouse, or image...is more than art.
It is a receipt of resistance. A record of imagination under pressure.
A proof point that Black minds are magic, and that our stories will never be limited to the margins.
So to every child who scans this code:
Your dreams are not too big. Your ideas are not too bold.
You come from creatives who colored outside the lines, and made history doing it.
“We’ve always drawn our own freedom. Floyd Norman just did it in ink and film.”
- Dr. Tracy P. Washington (Curator, United Crowns Mobile Museum of Black History & Culture)