An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

he wrote, “The black and brown and red and yellow peoples have begun
rebelling today, and are sick and tired of it.” 56 It is clear that as Malcolm
traveled more, encountered more people, he began to understand the
interconnectedness between colonialism and racism, and how this worked
globally. However, he was murdered in 1965, and we don’t know how he
might have developed different viewpoints at the height of Indigenous
radicalism in the early 1970s. I’m sure he would have been more than
supportive.
After Malcolm was assassinated, his half-sister, Ella L. Collins, took
over the leadership of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).
Malcolm had formed the group in 1964 after the Nation of Islam forced him
out of his leadership position as national spokesman. It was a secular
organization that allowed him to engage in the larger Black movement for
liberation. According to an April 1967 article in the Chicago Defender,
Collins said that the OAAU was close to purchasing a thousand acres of
land in an unknown site in New York. Called a “back-to-farm effort,” she
believed that the “colonies” that would settle on the land would not only
end the oppression of Black people but also end the need to protest. She
argued that they would create their own laws based upon their “original
culture and moral foundations.” And if white people tried to stop them, they
would “fight back,” in the words of her late brother, “by any means
necessary.” 57 It is not known if they were successful in securing land, but
the question remains: even if they got land, what about the Indigenous
peoples of New York? Where would they have fit into those Black
“colonies”? If Malcolm X sought to secure land, James Baldwin sought to
liberate the US from itself, through critique and love.
JAMES BALDWIN
Most of us who have read the novels and nonfiction writing of James
Baldwin have our own version of him. Some see him as a brilliant, Black
queer novelist. Others see him as a voice that dared hold a mirror up to
white America so it might see itself. In yet another version, he’s like close
family—my close friends refer to him as “Uncle James or Uncle JB.” I
loved his work from the time I was introduced to him in a civil rights course
in James Madison College. He helped me think beyond Malcolm X and
then circle back and gain greater appreciation for him. If Malcolm X helped