On Language, Race, and the Black Writer
James Baldwin
:)
James Baldwin :)
This is a short speech given in January 15, 1979 by James Baldwin, a writer and activist who was a pivotal part of the Civil Rights Movement. It is a concise yet thought-provoking lecture outlining the persistence of oppression after the supposed victory of the civil rights movement.
A little bit of background: James Baldwin was born and grew up in poverty in Harlem, New York. He experienced intense racism and homophobia during his late teens and early 20s and pursued writing while working odd jobs. In his early 20s he published a couple of book reviews which won him pretty prestigious fellowships. But he was disillusioned by racism in America and wanted to escape the confines of being recognized as an African-American writer. So by his mid 20s, in 1948, he gave all his scholarship money to his mom and left for Paris where he, for the first time, was treated as an American writer.
He became active in the left-radical politics of France at the time and went on to write three pretty successful novels during his time in France, namely Go Tell it on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, and Giovanni’s Room. Baldwin kept hearing about a budding civil rights movement in the U.S. and racist atrocities going on in America and felt he was wasting time in France. So, he came back in 1957 and began reporting on the Civil Rights Movement and wrote incredible essays for popular magazines like Harper’s, New York Times', and The New Yorker. And he became such a prominent writer on the topic of race and prejudice that he was featured on the cover of a Time Magazine issue in 1963. He began to work closely with Martin Luther King and was even invited to speak at the end of the monumental March on Washington.
Though Baldwin was neither closeted or open about his sexuality, his novels often featured gay main characters. And because the Civil Rights Movement was hostile towards homosexuals, MLK and other prominent activists faced pressure to distance themselves from Baldwin and, as a result, he was uninvited to speak at the March on Washington.
He remained an activist throughout his life but was always critical of the Civil Rights Movement with beliefs that it was not successful in changing the lives of Black people in America and that it was co-opted by white liberals.
Little Rad Reading Club’s latest read, linked below, is James Baldwin’s speech given in 1979 at UC Berkeley. It’s a very short read (just one page long) and it is accompanied by a video recording of Baldwin giving the speech, which shows him to be a poignant, funny, and immensely personable thinker.
But wait, there’s more.
I also dug a little and found the FBI files (!) on James Baldwin which were declassified by the gov’t in 1989 after his death in 1987 … the link below is basically the table of contents of the entirety of his file but it really shows you how closely the government was following Baldwin’s every move (literally) from 1963 until 1968, and how insanely powerful of an influence he was during the civil rights movement. The initial pages of his FBI file are linked in the last button below, but, if you’re interested, you can find the entirety of Baldwin’s FBI file, all 252 pages, here.
Aaaand I also found a playlist of all the records James Baldwin collected! Shout out to Ikechúkwú Onyewuenyi for putting this together!! Check out the playlist, here :)
Bonus: In the January 1985 issue of Playboy, James Baldwin wrote an incredible essay about masculinity in America, his emergence into his sexuality, and the tribulations he faced as a gay Black man in NYC in the 40s. This essay also paints a crystal clear picture about what 42nd street was like for gay folk, particularly men, back then and what it was at the time he wrote the article. 42nd street, now Times Square, was previously mentioned in Audre Lorde’s “The Master’s Tools” essay as a hub for prostitution.
Trigger warning: this essay does briefly insinuate an instance of child abuse, describes several instances of sexual harassment and assault, and mentions an instance of rape.
With that said, I hiiighly recommend this read. It’s a little lengthier than our usual reads (9 pages or so) but very story-telling and casual. You can read this essay here.
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Sources:
Speech/Essay generated from “On Language, Race, and the Black Writer ” by James Baldwin as it appears in “The Cross of Redemption - Uncollected Writings” - Thank you tons tons tons to Biblioteca da Luta for hosting the free PDF of the book on their site.
"Reflections of James Baldwin” speech LIVE at UC Berkley in January 15, 1979 – Courtesy of C-SPAN
James Baldwin: Federal Bureau of Investigation Files – Lmao I refuse to thank the FBI for declassifying this. So, shout out to the Internet Archive.
“Here be the Dragons” (originally published as “Freaks and the American Ideal of Masculinity” in the January 1985 issue of Playboy) - Thank you very very much to the the Chandler Unified School District in Phoenix, Arizona, for hosting this publicly. My absolute gratitude goes out to whichever teacher in that district added this essay to their curriculum.