An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

surprising if she did. The Choctaw of Mississippi had formed into their
modern iteration in the 1930s under the Indian Reorganization Act. They
benefited from the civil rights activities as well. Hamer also likely
understood the challenges that Native Americans had faced in Mississippi,
especially that of removal and erasure.
MALCOLM X
I have read The Autobiography of Malcolm X every summer since I was
sixteen; it is my favorite book. During a particularly difficult time in my
life, my Advanced Placement US history teacher, Mr. K., gave me a copy of
the book after trying to get me to talk to him about my situation. For
reasons I don’t remember, I did not want to hear from this white man! He
pulled out of his bag an original copy of The Autobiography. As he handed
it to me, he said, “I’m white, and I know you’ve completely tuned me out.
But I’m going to give you this old copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm
X. I hope it helps.” I went home that day and read it all within a few days. I
could not put the book down. How Malcolm, without apology, described
racism and its source helped me see clearly for the first time in my life why
I was often very angry. Racism had impacted my life in ways I had never
really thought about, and Malcolm gave me the language to understand it.
The book changed my life.
During this past summer, while doing my annual re-reading, I was struck
by how Malcolm discussed Indigenous people and histories. Malcolm
described to Alex Haley how he would go “fishing” for potential new
converts, tell them about the history of the “white man’s crimes” and why
Islam was the religion for the Black man. He made a brief reference to
Manhattan: “Go right on down to the tip of Manhattan Island that this
devilish white man stole from the trusting Indians for twenty-four
dollars!” 33 There are two points here. First, where did Malcolm learn this?
Second, it suggests he was at least vaguely familiar with Indigenous
histories of New York City, though he mistakenly framed Native people as
trusting, docile, and without agency.
In another part of the book, the local hustlers taught him how to live a
life of crime; they also explained to him histories of Harlem’s demographic
change over time. Hustlers explained that Harlem was first a Dutch
settlement; then came the Germans, then the Irish and Italians, and then