Caleb Gayle, author of “We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power”

Caleb Gayle is the author of We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power (2022), a landmark work that presents the extraordinary story of the Creek Nation in Oklahoma, a Native tribe that two centuries ago both owned slaves and accepted Black people as full citizens.
In praise of Gayle’s writing, Kiese Laymon said the book, “reminds readers, on damn near every page, that we are collectively experiencing a brilliance we’ve seldom seen or imagined.” Jacqueline Woodson called it, “An important part of American history told with a clear-eyed and forceful brilliance.”

Gayle also wrote the much-discussed May 25, 2021 cover story for the New York Times Magazine on the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Co-sponsored by the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education.