A vivid graphic story of Black life in America, by the award-winning political cartoonist Ben Pasmore. It's the summer of 2020 and downtown Philadelphia is on fire. “Aren't you out on the streets with everyone else?” asks his confused son Ronnie, Ben, who enters holding a handful of used books: works by Malcolm X, Robert F. Williams, Assata, and Sanyika Shakur, among others. “Black liberation is also your fight.”

Thus begins Black Arms to Hold You Up, a lively, darkly humorous, and gripping journey through the history of Black fighters. From Robert Charles's clash with police in 1900, to the Black Power movement of the 1960s, the Los Angeles riots, the George Floyd protests in the 1990s, and the early 2000s, readers will dive into more than a century of armed resistance against racist state oppression with Ben—and will first encounter the mechanisms and fathers of the movement, whose stories are as tragic as they are heroic.

What remains to be fought for after so many decades lost to state violence? Thoroughly researched, vividly illustrated, and provocatively introspective, Black Arms to Hold You Up dares to find the answer.

Pages: 224, Dimensions: 22.4x22.4cm