Gill, Joel Christian

Tells the story of Robert Smalls, a slave steamboat wheelman who navigated past Confederate forts in South Carolina and became one of the Civil War's greatest heroes.

A comprehensive history of anti-black racism in graphic format focuses on the lives of five major players in American history and highlights the debates that took place between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and anti-racists.

"[A] memoir of artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age as a poor Black child in a chaotic southern landscape of rough city streets and foreboding backwoods during the crack cocaine boom of the 1980s. Propelled into a world filled with uncertainty and desperation, young Joel is pushed toward using violence to solve his problems by everyone and everything around him. But fighting doesn't always yield the best results for a confused and sensitive kid who yearns for a better, more fulfilling life than the one he was born into"--Back cover.

"Have you ever been told that you're not enough? That you're not strong enough, tall enough, or fast enough? Bessie was told she was not enough. This book combines an imagined story of Bessie Stringfield as a young girl with historical facts about the real Bessie, a true adventurer and one of the first African-American women to travel solo across the United States on a motorcycle"--Back cover.

"A collection of stories from early African American history that represent the oddity of success in the face of great adversity. Each of the eight illustrated chapters chronicles an uncelebrated African American hero or event. Joel Christian Gill offers historical and cultural commentary on heroes whose stories are not often found in history books, such as Cathay Williams, the only known female Buffalo Soldier, and Eugene Bullard, a fighter pilot who flew for France during World War I"--Back cover.

"Imagine a five-foot-two-inch-tall woman riding a Harley eight times across the continental United States. Now imagine she is black and is journeying across the country in the pre-Civil Rights era of the 1930s and '40s. That is the amazing true story of Bessie Stringfield, the woman known today as The Motorcycle Queen of Miami and the first black woman to be inducted into the American Motorcyclist Association Hall of Fame and the Harley Davidson Hall of Fame. Stringfield was a pioneer in motorcycling during her lifetime; she rode as a civilian courier for the US military and founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club in Miami, all while confronting and overcoming Jim Crow in every ride"--Provided by publisher.

Tells nine stories of lesser-known African Americans using historical and cultural commentary.

"Tells the story of Bass Reeves, an escaped slave who became one of the most successful lawmen of the Old West and the rumored inspiration for The Lone Ranger."--Provided by publisher.