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.
