Still I Rise: A Graphic Novel of African Americans

A while back my oldest son was in a comic book store, or maybe it was just a normal book store.  He laid eyes on a particular graphic novel that he thought, "That's up my dad's alley," or something to that effect.  He was right.  Originally released in the early '90s, Laird, Laird, and Bey re-released Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African  Americans shortly after President Obama's election. I'm glad they did. 

The history of African people in the United States is told in comic book form, or graphic novel form, from the shores of Africa to Dr. Martin Luther King to President Obama.  Obviously it has to be short and concise. The histories of other people are told: Sojourner Truth, C. J. Walker, Ida B. Wells, Malcolm X, Carter  G. Woodson, and Deadria  Farmer-Paellmann, and many, many more. Critiqued as a "first rate scholarship" effort, and full of "sometimes acerbic, other times perceptively humorous, and always powerfully honest," I recommend this book to you.

It appeals to me as a student of Black farmers as I understand even more the context within which blacks were meant to work the land but never to own the land. It informed me again and again as to how the USA has been built on the backs of blacks who were enslaved and then continually disenfranchised by the privileged white society.

Epic struggles are laid out, key events in US and black history, and contributions of blacks to science, industry, agriculture, and the US military. 

Buy it.  Read it.  Read it to your children. Give it to you children to read.  All will be perturbed and blessed, and blessed to be perturbed again.  That is a good thing.