James Baldwin (1924-1987)

James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924 in Harlem, NY.

Growing up, he spent a lot of time caring for his younger siblings, and family relationships played a large role in his fictional writing.

Baldwin had a negative view of religion, shaped in part by his abusive stepfather who was a preacher. He became a junior minister of a Pentecostal church at age 14, but soon became disillusioned with Christianity.

Baldwin’s life and work (cont.)

Disillusioned with American prejudice against both African Americans and homosexuals, Baldwin left the U.S. at age 24 and settled in Paris. He lived in France for much of his later life.

He returned to the U.S. in 1957 and became heavily involved in the civil rights movement through the mid-1960s.

Baldwin’s fiction tends to address fundamental personal questions of identity, and the quest for acceptance of black, gay, and bisexual people.

The essay collection Notes of

a Native Son (1955) is one of

Baldwin’s best known works.

Baldwin among fellow participants at

the 1963 Civil Rights March on

Washington, DC

Baldwin with friend and fellow writer

Toni Morrison. Morrison wrote a eulogy

for Baldwin that appeared in The New

York Times, and credits him as being her

literary inspiration.

Considering relationships in Baldwin

Baldwin writes that his nephew’s grandfather “had a

terrible life; he was defeated long before he died

because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed

what white people said about him” (13).

What does this statement reveal about the role that other

people’s perceptions of us play in our ideas about

ourselves?

Baldwin argues that white people “have had to believe

for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black

men are inferior to white men,” (17) even though many

whites know better, because they fear “the loss of their

identity” (17).

How might recognizing that black people and white

people are equal threaten white self-identity?

Community and society in Baldwin

Baldwin concludes his letter by stating that the

United States “is celebrating one hundred years of

freedom one hundred years too soon” (18).

How would you describe Baldwin’s idea of freedom?

What does freedom mean for him?

Do you think Baldwin would subscribe to the idea of

democracy as progress that we’ve observed in other

writers? Why or why not?

How does Baldwin represent society in this letter to

his nephew? What about community? Does he view

them as forces for good, bad, or both? How do you

know?