Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans
Charles R. Johnson
 The book's plot centers around the fact that many African indentured servants, once in America, proved to be highly skilled - even more so than many of their European counterparts. The book tells the tale of how these servants went on to buy out their indenture contracts, creating a white backlash which resulted in lengthening those contracts. As tensions between Africans and Europeans grew, this ultimately led in 1676 to the Bacon's Rebellion, which caused slavery to become official law in all the colonies. The book then takes the reader from the end of American slavery, through Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement to the nomination of President Barack Obama. The central theme that is woven throughout the narrative is the resilience, creativity and fortitude of African Americans through virtually insurmountable obstacles.