James Baldwin.  One of the most prolific and quintessential Black writers in American history. An activist who championed for his people.  One who spoke highly and truthfully about the Black experience in America.  Born on August 2, 1924, Baldwin was a champion for literature and had an affinity for reading at an early age.  A passion that would grow to be one of the most influential careers in history. 

Born in Harlem, New York to a single mother, Baldwin never knew his biological father’s name.  Instead, he took on the name of his step-father, David Baldwin, when he and James’ mother married when James was just 3 years old.  Following in his step-father’s footsteps, James was a youth minister in a Harlem church during his teenage years, while homing in on his passion for writing.  

As a high-school student in the Bronx, he wrote poems, short stories, and plays for the school’s magazine.  He encountered the first major obstacle in his writing career when he was unable to attend college after graduating from high school because he needed to help support the family.  Taking odd jobs, meeting racial and social discrimination at every turn, and losing his step-father urged him to move to Greenwich Village, a place where aspiring artists and talented writers took up residence in New York City.  Shortly thereafter, he met writer Richard Wright, who helped James get a fellowship what would help sustain him financially while publishing literary works in national periodicals such as “The Nation”, “Partisan Review”, and Commentary”.  Three years after these accomplishments, Baldwin made another more drastic change and moved to Paris, France after receiving a second fellowship.  It was here in Paris that Baldwin notes he was the most free and could “deal” with both his heritage of slavery and talents as a writer.  

Baldwin received yet another fellowship called the Guggenheim fellowship after writing “Go Tell It on the Mountain”.  Baldwin then wrote “Giovanni’s Room”, which told of his tales in Paris, explored his fluid sexuality, and broke new grounds on the then taboo topic of homosexuality.  Baldwin would subsequently go on to write plays, but it were his essays that caught the attention of the world and are still referenced heavily on topics of race relations today. Essays like “Notes of a Native Son” and “Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son” solidified Baldwin’s place as an activist who spoke his truth through his writing. 

While his literary works catapulted his career to heights he could have never imagined, it was “The Fire Next Time”, a collection of essays educating white Americans on blackness, that ignited the fire of truth in the American people.  It would go on to sell a million copies. 

Before his death in 1987, Baldwin was featured on the cover of TIME magazine, wrote another play called “Blues for Mister Charlie”, a book with his dear friend Richard Avalon called “Nothing Personal” (a tribute to slain Civil Rights leader, Medgar Evers), a collection of short stories entitled “Going to Meet the Man”, and a novel “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone”.  Furthermore, he attempted to adapt “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Alex Haley and continued to write pieces concerning racially charged America.  

Baldwin deemed himself as a “witness to the truth” through his literary works and many essays.  Thank God for those Royal Papers.

Sources:

1) (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2016, from http://www.biography.com/people/james-baldwin-9196635

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4) Image 3: http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/files/2014/05/James-Baldwin.jpg