James Baldwin: Writer And Activist

by Aidan Taylor

BUT IN ORDER TO CHANGE A SITUATION, ONE MUST SEE IT FOR WHAT IT IS; IN THE PRESENT CASE…...THAT THE NEGRO HAS BEEN FORMED TO THIS NATION, FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, AND DOES NOT BELONG TO ANY OTHER, NOT AFRICA, AND ESPECIALLY NOT ISLAM. THE PARADOX...IS THAT THE AMERICAN NEGRO CAN HAVE NO FUTURE ANYWHERE, ON ANY CONTINENT, IF HE IS UNWILLING TO ACCEPT HIS PAST. TO ACCEPT ONE'S’ PAST… IS NOT THE SAME AS DROWNING IN IT; IT IS LEARNING HOW TO USE IT. AN INVENTED PAST CAN NEVER BE USED; IT CRACKS AND CRUMBLES UNDER THE PRESSURE OF LIFE LIKE CLAY IN A SEASON OF DROUGHT”.

James Baldwin is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. More than another revolutionary, he was an activist for humanity. He expressed points of view on race relations that many of his peers did not share with him, enabling him to connect with people globally, no matter the color of their skin.

Born in Harlem on August 2nd, 1926, Baldwin was the oldest of nine, often playing the role of the father to his younger siblings. James and his father never got along, he grew up in a very strict Christian household, both of his parents being prominent members of the church. His father a minister, his mother a preacher. Harlem carried a certain energy in it during Baldwin’s childhood. Its' people carried a profound sense of struggle on their shoulders. Whether it be druggies or the drug dealers, the prostitutes or the pimps, the sense of anxiety was certainly felt. This energy was carried for generations behind them, all across the United States, and Baldwin realized that from a very young age.

Baldwin became involved in the church as an adolescence. His involvement came from what he calls a “religious crisis”, searching for something and somewhere to belong. His options we’re limited and he was well aware of that. However, Baldwin refused to fall subject to the pimps and needles that surrounded him. In his book, The Fire Next Time, Baldwin states, “What I saw around me that summer in Harlem was what I had always seen; nothing had changed. But now, without any warning, the whores and pimps and racketeers on the avenue had become a personal menace. It had not before occured to me that I could become one of them, but now I realize that we had been produced by the same circumstances”. Baldwin understood that all the people around him we’re growing into what white people had expected them to be, and understood that he was close to falling into the same trap, “... I was determined … never to make peace with the ghetto but to die and go to Hell before I would let any white man spit on me or to accept my ‘place’ in society.”

As Baldwin got older, the reality of his role in the church and what that truly meant became clearer. Ultimately, he saw the part that the church played in oppression and capitalism. After picking back up on one of his favorite activities, reading, Baldwin decided to dismantle his membership with the institution.  “...I had been in the pulpit too long and had seen too many monstrous things…. I really mean that there was no love in the church. It was just a mask for hatred, self-hatred and despair.” Baldwin found his passion for writing soon after he graduated high school, and about 5 years later moved to Paris on a fellowship, it is in France where he began to understand his role in this world.

Baldwin established himself as an unique writer and activist, to say the very least. He approached his writing with something that the entire world had never been exposed to. He was able to connect the emotions of African Americans to the emotions of the human race. In that, he was able to beautifully connect love, despair, race, and oppression in ways that no writer, and indeed no activist, has done before.

Baldwin was also a lone soldier, he never committed to any social or political group during the Civil Rights era precisely because he saw that they all, in one way or another, wanted what the white man had: power, money, control. Baldwin believed that if there was to be true change, then it needed to be radical. For African Americans to truly be free, the entire system needed to be overhauled. The American dream currently comes at the expense of someone else’s, and that simply can’t stand if we are looking to gain true freedom.

Baldwin eventually moved to France for good, continuing to write, speak and inspire those from all generations. He was under the watch of the FBI throughout his life for his involvement with Black radicals and communist. Baldwin words, whether written or spoken, influenced people of all backgrounds and political beliefs. This made Baldwin and his works a major concern for America's administration at that time. However, he went on to live a very successful career as a writer. His works include: Go Tell It On The Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Giovanni's Room, The Fire Next Time, Nobody Knows My Name, If Beale Street Could Talk, and many more.

James Baldwin died on December 1st, 1987 at the age of 63. He lived a life of purpose, truth, and love. He knew he could not change the world on his own but that his ideas and writings made it a better place. Baldwin certainly did change the world, he sparked the fuse for many of the creatives we look up to, made his presence known and his blackness respected. His work can be used to answer many of the questions we find ourselves asking in our current political and social climate. Thank you James Baldwin, for being a constant source of inspiration, for leading by example, and doing what you could to make this world a better place. Creatives everywhere have much to learn from you.

“Everything now, we must assume is in our hands. We have no choice to assume otherwise. If we--and now I mean the relatively conscious white and the relatively conscious black….. Do not falter in our duty, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of the prophecy… is upon us. ‘God gave noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time.’”