When Paul Von Blum started teaching African American art classes at UCLA 13 years ago, he found few books published on black Los Angeles artists. He kept waiting for someone to publish a book on the subject and eventually gave up.

"There was a significant group of African American artists in Los Angeles and no one had written about them," Von Blum said. "I said, 'I've got to do this.'"

The result is "Resistance, Dignity and Pride: African American Artists in Los Angeles," which includes chapters on 16 accomplished African American artists. Each chapter features a personal history of an artist as well as a description of the artist's major projects. The book includes 32 pages of the artists' works.

The book features such pioneering artists as Betye Saar, Samella Lewis and William Pajaud. It also showcases younger artists including Lavialle Campbell, C. Ian White and Willie Middlebrook.

Artist Varnette Honeywood said Von Blum's book gives recognition long due to a thriving community of African American artists in Los Angeles.

"Paul's book will allow people to start learning more about this vibrant and wonderful community that has produced and nurtured many great artists," Honeywood said.

According to Von Blum, the struggle for justice and racial equality in the 1960s and 1970s helped to galvanize a strong African American arts community in Los Angeles. Artists felt inspired to create art that reflected their reality, and their supporters advocated greater exposure of the artists' work.

Von Blum includes such stories as those of Claude Booker and Cecil Fergerson, both non-professional employees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art who felt a mission to bring black artists to public attention. Together, they formed the Black Art Council in 1968, which served as the art world's equivalent to the NAACP.

Booker was able to pressure the museum to sponsor the first major exhibition on African American art, entitled "Two Centuries of Black American Art," in 1976, according to Von Blum.

Fergerson, who started as a janitor and tenaciously worked himself into a curatorial assistant position at LACMA, organized the art exhibition at the Watts Summer Festival for many years and continues to be an advocate for black artists. He is widely esteemed among the artists he has inspired and is the subject of various art projects showcased in the book, including the book's cover photo.

Von Blum also wrote about key artists who paved the way for future generations of black artists. They include Charles White, who before his death in 1979 had created many striking murals, drawings and prints that captured the essential dignity and strength of his people; Ruth Waddy, who founded Art West Associated, an organization that encouraged African Americans to pursue their artistic interests; and Samella Lewis, who as an art historian and artist has devoted her long career to bringing recognition and respect to a powerful tradition of visual creativity.

"'Resistance, Dignity and Pride' celebrates some of the major contemporaries and descendants of this accomplished and energetic African American community of Los Angeles artists," Von Blum wrote. "Many were personally engaged in the inseparable intellectual, cultural and political activities of the 1960s and 1970s. All have profited from their participation in the artistic community that developed then. By documenting their lives and works, the book reveals the historical continuity of that tradition."

Von Blum divided the book into three sections. "Resistance" includes artists who have created a range of politically provocative works on subjects ranging from slavery and police brutality to economic inequity and media bias. They include Lavialle Campbell, Sandra Rowe, Alison Saar and Pat Ward Williams, all artists who have promoted a powerful critique of American racism through their artworks, dramatically calling public attention to the myriad problems of their people throughout U.S. history.

"Struggling against the dual barriers of racism and sexism, women have been prominent among the artists who used their work for social and political commentary," Von Blum wrote.

The section also includes biographies on C. Ian White and Willie Middlebrook.

"Dignity" includes artists whose primary protest has taken the form of presenting positive images of black people: political leaders, artists and athletic icons, and ordinary mothers and fathers, aunts, musicians, even insurance men. It includes chapters on Ernie Barnes, Varnette Honeywood, Elliot Pinkney, Ramsess and Richard Wyatt.

"Pride" examines the personal artworks of people who have established art institutions where their colleagues' work can be exhibited with pride and others who were pioneers in their fields. They are Betye Saar, Roland Charles, Samella Lewis, John Outterbridge and William Pajaud.

"African American artists who were born in the first third of the 20th century faced an art world that was at best, indifferent and at worst, hostile to their presence," Von Blum wrote. "Far from nurturing talented black painters and sculptors, the mainstream art establishment -- galleries, museums and schools -- largely shunned their works. As a result, African Americans of this vintage met the challenge not only of producing work but also of creating an environment in which black artists could flourish."

In the process of writing the book, Von Blum also became close friends with many of the artists he wrote about; he has visited their homes and studios, and he’s become an advocate for African American art in Los Angeles, encouraging his students and others to learn about the artists and the rich history of African American art in Los Angeles.

Artist Lavialle Campbell, who took African American art courses with Von Blum at UCLA, said she learned a lot in his class.

"There were lot of things we didn't know about our own history and he was able to expose us to that history and different artists," she said.