I Hope Griffith Is Spinning In His Damn Grave

Birth of a Nation by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin with illustrations by Kyle Baker | PopMatters Book Review: "McGruder's and Hudlin's story begins, not in the hate-filled times of Reconstruction, but on the day Fred Fredericks, the activist black mayor of East St. Louis, is improperly purged from voter roles during a presidential election. After much constitutional bickering, he responds by founding a new nation. Called 'Black Land' with Fredericks as president, East St. Louis is transformed into an offshore bank through the influence of billionaire black businessmen John Roberts. Responding to this threat in a caricature of the Bush administration, the US federal government begins organizing an invasion. Knuckleheads from all over the country pore into the fledgling state, thinking it a safe haven. Public services are cut off and Black Land becomes the focus of international media coverage. So facing external violence and badgered by internal strife, Fredricks's grand experiment teeters on the knife's edge of selling-out versus the greatest racial uplift in American history. "