Black Communities in DC
Course Title: Black and Indigenous DC
Day & Time: Wednesdays, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
From the 1963 March on Washington to the 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Black and Indigenous activists have used Washington, D.C. as a vital site of protest for civil rights and treaty recognition. Often viewed separately, these struggles intersected in efforts to confront anti-Blackness and anti-Indigenous bigotry. This course traces Black and Indigenous activism in D.C. from the 1960s to today, examining protest history and the strategies oppressed communities use to advocate for change.
Kyle Mays
Kyle T. Mays (he/him) is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar. He is a Professor of African American Studies and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2023-2024, he was a Fulbright Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of five books, including When We Are Kin: The History and Future of Afro-Indigenous Solidarity (Haymarket, 2026); Rethinking the Red Power Movement with Sam Hitchmough (Routledge, 2024); City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and the Creation of Modern Detroit (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022); An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2021); and Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America (SUNY Press, 2018). Dr. Mays teaches courses on the intersection of blackness and indigeneity, as well as urban history and popular culture.
