James Baldwin

(1924-1987) will forever be remembered as one of the greatest writers and thinkers in U.S. history, though so much of his work was critical of the very beliefs that America was founded upon. Baldwin was a vocal critic of the nation’s racist practices and institutions, pointing out the pervasiveness of white supremacy in every corner of society. For Baldwin, this was a central tenet of what it meant to be a citizen of not just the country but the world: to be alive to the possibility of change even in the face of hardship. Baldwin was born in 1924 in Harlem, where he grew up with a young single mother. His mother married a Baptist minister when Baldwin was three years old, and his complicated relationship with the man would later inspire his first novel, 1953’s dynamic Go Tell It on the Mountain, which also tackles issues of race, rage, religion, and identity. Baldwin was a curious, voracious reader and writer from an early age. Over the years, he grew into a true boundary-pushing intellectual who unapologetically expressed his rage through his writing, shining a light on the continued oppression of Black people, homosexuals — he was one of the first writers to address homosexuality outright — and anyone who didn’t fit into the American mainstream. After a three-year stint in New York City’s Greenwich Village and some literary success in the U.S., Baldwin’s complicated relationship with his home country drove him to move to Paris to escape America’s systemic racism. Some of his most celebrated works were born from this decision to become, as he called it, a “transatlantic commuter.” These include his novels Giovanni’s Room (1956) and Another Country (1962), and his essay collection Notes of a Native Son (1955). Baldwin’s ideas were, and continue to be, hugely influential. He inspired other legendary writers — everyone from Maya Angelou to Toni Morrison — and wrote bravely and openly on topics that are still crucial and complex today, despite being criticized for it in his time. His most famous writings tackle issues of race, homosexuality, social justice, and spirituality, laying out the complexities of being a gay Black man in America. His ability to distill nuanced ideas into dynamic prose and poetry has made his work an invaluable part of the American literary canon.