Judgment Day Beat Racial Censorship

In February 1956, the Comics Code Authority tried to stop EC Comics from reprinting the 1953 story "Judgment Day" because its astronaut protagonist was Black, even though the Code contained no ban on Black characters. Writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Orlando had created the story as an allegory against racial prejudice, which depended on the final reveal of the astronaut's race. A Code administrator named Charles Murphy ordered publisher William Gaines to change the final panel, but Gaines refused and threatened to alert the press. Murphy reversed his decision and allowed the story to run with the Code seal.

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