With the rise of Black Lives Matter, the publication of Civil Rights For Beginners becomes especially timely. The “documentary comic book” boils down centuries of African American resistance from slave ship revolts through the protests of 2014. Author Paul Von Blum, a UCLA African American studies lecturer, outlines the ideas and accomplishments of historical figures from Harriet Tubman through W.E.B. Du Bois and focuses on the chain of people and events culminating in the 1960s civil rights movement. Blum is unstinting in his depiction of the brutality that buttressed American racism.
