Noted African-American Author James Baldwin is Born
James Baldwin, an acclaimed African-American novelist and essayist, was born on this day.
His most famous non-fiction work is the book, The Fire Next Time (1963), which first appeared in the New Yorker magazine, and which warned of rising African-American discontent and essentially predicted the urban riots that began the following summer of 1964.
He first drew national attention for his first novel, the semi-autobiographical Go Tell it On the Mountain (1953).
Malcolm X gave a speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” on April 3, 1964, which like Baldwin’s book The First Next Time, prophetically anticipated the riots of the 1960s. White American leaders did not heed their warnings, but instead generally condemned them for racial rabble-rousing. See the riots in New York City (1964), Los Angeles (1965), and the 1968 Kerner Commission report on the riots.
Baldwin is famous for arranging (at Kennedy’s request) a private meeting of Attorney General Robert Kennedy and a number of African-American writers and entertainments. The meeting began and ended in conflict as Kennedy could not accept the candid –and angry– criticisms of American racism that some of the African-Americans expressed. Read about the meeting on May 24, 1963 (and read the great book about the meeting listed below).
Watch a 1963 interview with James Baldwin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpRziHGxeEU
Read: James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963)
See the two great documentaries in Baldwin: I Am Not Your Negro (2017), and The Price of the Ticket (1989)
Learn more: David Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography (1994)
Read about the famous Baldwin-Robert Kennedy meeting: Michael Eric Dyson, What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin, and our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America (2018)
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here