“An important part of American history told with a clear-eyed
and forceful brilliance.” —National Book Award winner Jacqueline
Woodson
“We Refuse
to Forget reminds readers, on damn near every page, that we are
collectively experiencing a brilliance we’ve seldom seen or
imagined…We Refuse to Forget is a new standard in
book-making.” —Kiese Laymon, author of the bestselling Heavy: An
American Memoir
A landmark work
of untold American history that reshapes our understanding of
identity, race, and belonging
In
We Refuse to Forget,
award-winning journalist Caleb Gayle tells the extraordinary story of
the Creek Nation, a Native tribe that two centuries ago both owned
slaves and accepted Black people as full citizens. Thanks to the
efforts of Creek leaders like Cow Tom, a Black Creek citizen who rose
to become chief, the U.S. government recognized Creek citizenship in
1866 for its Black members. Yet this equality was shredded in the
1970s when tribal leaders revoked the citizenship of Black Creeks,
even those who could trace their history back generations—even to
Cow Tom himself.
Why
did this happen? How was the U.S. government involved? And what are
Cow Tom’s descendants and other Black Creeks doing to regain their
citizenship? These are some of the questions that Gayle explores in
this provocative examination of racial and ethnic identity. By
delving into the history and interviewing Black Creeks who are
fighting to have their citizenship reinstated, he lays bare the
racism and greed at the heart of this story. We
Refuse to Forget is an
eye-opening account that challenges our preconceptions of identity as
it shines new light on the long shadows of white supremacy and
marginalization that continue to hamper progress for Black Americans.