She was Sleeping!

The Civil Rights Movement did not end systemic racism. People of color are disproportionately impacted by police brutality, racial violence, and sentencing inequities in the criminal justice system. In March, we see the 1963 Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama, where police used fire hoses and attack dogs on child protestors (1). Six days in Cincinnati chronicles protests in the aftermath of police shooting an unarmed 19 year old black man (2). “The Walker” depicts protests in the wake of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri (3). Although fictionalized, many comics about police brutality draw heavily on real-world events and contemporary social ills (4, 5, 6). Lest we think the problem is solely an American one, Flic recounts the killing of Adama Traore by police in France (7).

Excerpt from March Book Three (Top Shelf Productions, 2016) by John Lewis & Andrew Aydin (writers) and Nate Powell (artist).

(1) March Book Three (Top Shelf Productions, 2016) by John Lewis & Andrew Aydin (writers) and Nate Powell (artist) On Display: Pages 134-135

Excerpt from Six days in Cincinnati : a graphic account of the riots that shook the nation a decade before Black Lives Matter (Microcosm Publishing, 2017) by Dan Méndez Moore (creator).

(2) Six days in Cincinnati : a graphic account of the riots that shook the nation a decade before Black Lives Matter (Microcosm Publishing, 2017) by Dan Méndez Moore (creator). On Display: Pages 24-25

Excerpt from APB : artists against police brutality (Rosarium Publishing, 2015) by Damian Duffy, P. Djèlí Clarkn & Sofia Samatar (writers) and Bill Campbell, Jason Rodriguez & John Jennings (editors).

(3) APB : artists against police brutality (Rosarium Publishing, 2015) by Damian Duffy, P. Djèlí Clarkn & Sofia Samatar (writers) and Bill Campbell, Jason Rodriguez & John Jennings (editors). On Display: “The Walker” by Melanie Stevens

Excerpt from The Silence of Our Friends (Square Fish, 2018) by Mark Long & Jim Demonakos (writers) and Nate Powell (artists).

(4) The Silence of Our Friends (Square Fish, 2018) by Mark Long & Jim Demonakos (writers) and Nate Powell (artists). On Display: Pages 126-127

(5) Static Season One (DC Comics, 2022) by Vita Ayala & Reginald Hudlin (writers) and Nikolas Draper-ivey, Chriscross, & Denys Cowan (artists). On Display: “The Big Bang.”

(6) I Am Alfonso Jones (Tu Books, 2017) by Tony Medina (writer) and Stacey Robinson & John Jennings (artists). On Display: Pages 46-47

Excerpt from Flic: The True Story of the Journalist Who Infiltrated the Police (Scribe US, 2023) by Valentin Gendrot (writer), Thierry Chavant (artist), and Frank Wynne (translator).

(7) Flic: The True Story of the Journalist Who Infiltrated the Police (Scribe US, 2023) by Valentin Gendrot (writer), Thierry Chavant (artist), and Frank Wynne (translator). On Display: Pages unnumbered

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