A professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies and History at UCLA explores the relationship and differences between the Black American quest for freedom and the Native American struggle for sovereignty in the U.S.
Mays...fills a much-needed void in the interpretation of U.S. history ... The complicated relationships between Black people and Indigenous people in the Southern United States are also carefully examined ... this work presents an Indigenous voice in the interpretation of U.S. history that is highly relevant to current discourse on the country's history and present society; it will likely be much sought-after in college classrooms.
The latest installment in Beacon Press’s superb ReVisioning History series emphasizes solidarity, intersectionality, and the indigenous identities of both Native and African Americans. The book avoids retreading ground already covered by others in the series ... He is unflinching in his critique of Black and Indigenous scholars and activists whose work undermined, rather than enhanced, solidarity between their communities. The book’s central question is how Black and Indigenous people can find common purpose with each other to oppose the unjust structures that form the backbone of American government and society. Nuanced and illuminating, this book is a worthy addition to a remarkable series.
... accessible and informative ... Mays’s colloquial voice (he refers to Du Bois as 'a bad dude') enlivens the often-distressing history, and he draws on his Black and Saginaw Chippewa ancestry to buttress his call for greater solidarity between African Americans and Native Americans. This immersive revisionist history sheds light on an overlooked aspect of the American past.
