Black Pride: James Arthur Baldwin
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
“Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.”
James Arthur Baldwin was an activist, poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist; a celebrated figure during the civil rights movement. He was born August 2, 1924, in Harlem, NY, and is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest writers.
Beyond Gen X, most of us may recognize him from I Am Not Your Negro, a 2016 documentary directed by Raoul Peck, based on Baldwin's unfinished manuscript Remember This House. His other contributions to the culture include Giovanni's Room, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Another Country, The Fire Next Time, Notes of a Native Son, and more.
Even during his early years, Baldwin excelled in academia - especially reading and writing. When he was only 10-years-old, he wrote a play directed by a teacher at his school!
During his teens, he also served as a youth minister in a Harlem Pentecostal church - channeling his passion for reading and writing into something familiar (as his stepfather was a minister). Baldwin also worked for his high school magazine, where he published numerous poems, short stories and plays. And although he had plans to go to college right out of high school, a series of events would keep him from doing so.
Baldwin’s family was poor, so he had to find work to help support his parents and seven younger siblings. And only a year after graduating high school, his [step]father passed, and his eighth sibling was born - both on the same day. More turmoil soon followed, but Baldwin knew that his circumstance did not define him, and that his mind was worth saving. So between these troubling times and the time he published his first novel, Baldwin moved to Paris. Which would forever change his life.
“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
Photograph by Allan Warren.
“It wasn’t so much a matter of choosing France — it was a matter of getting out of America.”
As you could imagine, being a Black man who also happens to be homosexual, was much more difficult during Baldwin’s time. Especially in America.
So the writer found refuge in Paris, where he published his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain; followed by the scandalous [during those times], Giovanni's Room. The country served its purpose as refuge for Baldwin, so much so that he was able to make a name for himself internationally. His writing was so powerful that it made people from all over the world engage in taboo / controversial conversations regarding race, sexuality, and the black experience in America.
Baldwin lived in many countries abroad, but returned to the United States during the civil rights movement. And although he would ultimately settle in the south of France in 1970, he still remained an international figure - continuing to “bear witness to the truth” though his groundbreaking and revolutionary literature.
Fun Fact:
Many of his close friends would come visit him at his home in St. Paul de Vence, France including; Josephine Baker, Sidney Poitier, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Simone Signoret, Ray Charles (who he wrote several songs for!), and more!
Photo by Dennis Jarvis.