The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American
struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding
of who was Indigenous in early America
Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement
for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous
historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted
in antiblackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel
oppressions continue into the present. He explores how Black and
Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled for freedom,
sometimes together, and sometimes apart. Whether to end African
enslavement and Indigenous removal or eradicate capitalism and
colonialism, Mays show how the fervor of Black and Indigenous peoples
calls for justice have consistently sought to uproot white supremacy.
Mays uses a wide-array of historical activists and pop culture icons,
"sacred" texts, and foundational texts like the Declaration of
Independence and Democracy in America. He covers the civil rights
movement and freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, and explores
current debates around the use of Native American imagery and the
cultural appropriation of Black culture. Mays compels us to rethink both
our history as well as contemporary debates and to imagine the powerful
possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity.
Includes an 8-page photo insert featuring Kwame Ture with Dennis Banks
and Russell Means at the Wounded Knee Trials; Angela Davis walking with
Oren Lyons after he leaves Wounded Knee, SD; former South African
president Nelson Mandela with Clyde Bellecourt; and more.
