The Responsibility to Remain: Black Power and Red Power Geographies of Massachusetts

Abstract

“The Responsibility to Remain: Black Power and Red Power Geographies of Massachusetts” examines the place-based praxis of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous political actors in eastern Massachusetts during the long Black Power-Red Power era. Grounded in the years between 1967 and 1986, it argues that Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous nations and communities responded to a longue dureée of colonial, national, state, and local attempts at dispossession and displacement through asserting their “responsibility to remain” and cultivation of “emplaced belonging.” “The Responsibility to Remain” examines two regions in eastern Massachusetts: the greater Boston area and southeastern Massachusetts—including North Dartmouth; New Bedford; and Cape Cod and the Islands. Utilizing archival research, literary analysis, and oral history, the project attends to methodological concerns of Black studies; Native American and Indigenous studies; social history; and geography.