Strange Fruit and Bitter Roots: Black History in Contemporary Graphic Narrative

Since the publication of The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo by Tom Feelings, more African American creators have used graphic narratives to explore key moments in colonial and US history. These graphic stories address the painful legacies of anti-Black violence and the long history of racial injustice, using the power of comics to both confront the past and offer visions for the future.

From the Middle Passage and slavery to the civil rights movement and today’s fight for Black Lives, these narratives reimagine history and challenge oppressive systems. Through creative artwork and storytelling, they give fresh perspectives on racial violence and racism in US visual culture, developing new visual languages and techniques to express these complex histories.

Strange Fruit and Bitter Roots connects scholarly research on Black history with some of the most impactful African American graphic novels. The book explores works such as King by Ho Che Anderson; The Middle Passage by Tom Feelings; Nat Turner by Kyle Baker; Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Nnedi Okorafor; Bitter Root by David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene; Blue Hand Mojo by John Jennings; Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez; and many others, bringing a deeper understanding of how graphic narratives can challenge historical narratives and shape conversations about race and identity today.

Daniel Stein is professor of North American literary and cultural studies and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Siegen, Germany. He is author of Music Is My Life: Louis Armstrong, Autobiography, and American Jazz and Authorizing Superhero Comics: On the Evolution of a Popular Serial Genre. Stein has also coedited numerous essay collections and journal issues focused on US literature, graphic narratives, nineteenth-century serial literature, and popular culture.