Joan Bacchus

• Born 1928-08-29 · Died 2006-01-22

Joan Bacchus Maynard was an American artist, author, community organizer, and preservationist. She was one of the founding members of a late 1960s grassroots group to preserve the legacy of Weeksville, a pre-Civil War African American community in Brooklyn, New York. Maynard was a cover artist for The Crisis magazine, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and a commercial artist for McGraw-Hill. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Bank Street College of Education. In 1966, Maynard (as Joan Bacchus) was a writer and artist for the Golden Legacy comic series started by Bertram Fitzgerald. She worked with Tom Feelings on the Saga of Harriet Tubman volume. She also wrote and pencilled issues about Matthew Henson, Joseph Cinqué, and La Amistad mutiny.