Known more as a public intellectual before he became celebrated for his fiction, Baldwin remained generous with his insights and conversation up until his death at 63 in 1987. In moving prose, Glaude reminds the reader of the poignancy of Baldwin’s social criticism and how relevant Baldwin remains for our disputed and distressed moment.
His most recent book, “Begin Again,” is not intended to be another biographical presentation of Baldwin. is a professor of African American Studies at Princeton. Baldwin left for France and would not return for nine years.Įddie Glaude Jr. His artistic ambitions could be shattered in the crucible of America’s meanness and contradictions. He might murder someone or be murdered himself.
His personal fury at the rampant injustices he and other people of color were daily subjected to forced him to confront unpleasant possibilities. By 1948, it became apparent to Baldwin that he could not remain in the United States. Simmering anger over ongoing racism and its accompanying urban poverty exploded.Īll this had a profound impact on the young, gay, Black man who aspired to be a writer. In Harlem, a Black soldier had been shot in the back by a white police officer. The lack of adequate housing, lack of jobs and hostility of the city’s police had precipitated the unrest in Detroit. James Baldwin was a teenager in New York City when, in 1943, riots broke out in Detroit and in Harlem, Baldwin’s neighborhood. (This article was originally published by Real Change News and has been reprinted with permission.)
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