Native American Lit Book Club: An Afro-Indigenous History of the U.S.

Please note: for December’s book club meeting, we are meeting the 2nd Wednesday (instead of the usual 1st Wednesda)y so as not to conflict with Colson Whitehead’s visit to Tulsa on December 7th.

From the publisher, Beacon Press:

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.

Our friends at Whitty Books have AN AFRO-INDIGENOUS HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES in stock. We’ll see you there!