A decorated Black-owned animation studio based in West Palm Beach has won an NAACP Image Award — which recognizes excellence among artists of color — for its children’s educational series.
The winning episode from the children’s animated series Peanut Headz: Black History Toonz details the life and achievements of Jackie Robinson — who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947.
But the animation, which won the best animation episode category, goes beyond Robinson's sports accolades, placing a spotlight on parts of his life often overshadowed by his ground-making achievements in the MLB, said artist Jason Fleurant, who goes by JaFLEU and founded Exhibit Treal Studios.
" Reading his story and where he came from and his rise and the things he went through like his stint in the military and the trouble he got in there. It inspired me," JaFLEU said. "I was like, I have to tell the story."
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Robinson also played semi-pro football in Honolulu, Hawaii, before he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, where he served as a second lieutenant in 761st Tank Battalion, an all-Black unit, from 1942 to 1944 during World War II.
But the Army’s Jim Crow policies were still intact — more than 1 million Black Americans served, facing systemic racism, which included segregated training facilities and exclusion from combat roles.
Prior to confronting racism in professional baseball, Robinson challenged the racial status quo in the U.S military: He was court-martialed in 1944 for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus on an Army base in Texas. His case was eventually dismissed, and he was honorably discharged later that year, according to the National Archives.
And it's that kind of untold history that needs to be in the forefront, said JaFleu. He believes animation series with Black voices are key tools for teaching under-taught Black history and making it more accessible.
Some of the episodes use music from artists like Nina Simone to guide the viewers through the storytelling.
"I think it [Black history animations] touches the soul," JaFleu said. "Or even the sonic, the sound of Blackness. It just connect through the art work that touches them on a different level. It snatches you."
The animation series is streaming on KweliTV, a Black-owned international platform.
The NAACP Image Awards airs live on BET and Paramount Plus on Saturday, Feb 22.
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