Jan Batiste Adkins highlights the seemingly unknown story of the African-American experience in the Bay Area, specifically San Francisco, in the book, “Images of America: African Americans of San Francisco.”

Originally starting out as a thesis for her master’s at San Jose State University, Adkins expanded her project into making this book, which makes it a little more personal than some of the other books in the “Image of America” book series.

The book is mainly a history book and features the wide array of research Adkins had done.

She presents it in a simple and stunning design with 126 pages of pictures and facts.

At $21.99, it would be recommended for those who especially want to know about the history of the African-American and Californian culture.

In her introduction, Adkins wrote, “The aim for this book is to inspire conversation about the efforts of the early pioneers and 20th-century leaders who envisioned new lives in the west.”

Those early pioneers she included in the book were African-Americans that included ex-slaves escaping the south, activists fighting for equality during the civil rights movement, schoolteachers, reverends and politicians, most of whose story, up until now, have unfortunately never been told.