1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,440 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. The last 4 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: thing we recorded before I got to work on today's 5 00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:22,520 Speaker 1: episode was our June five behind the scenes, and if 6 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: you've listened to that, I was clearly having a hard 7 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: time figuring out what to do next. And when I 8 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: remembered that I'd had James Baldwin on my list for 9 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: a while, my inward response was like, yes, obviously, James Baldwin. 10 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: Of course, why didn't you even think of this before? 11 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:44,959 Speaker 1: This description by Juan Williams and a piece called Baldwin 12 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,240 Speaker 1: The Witnesses Testament, which was published in The Washington Post 13 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: the day after Baldwin's death in illustrates why I had 14 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 1: that response quote. Given the messy nature of racial hatred, 15 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: of the half truths, blasphemies and lies that make up 16 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:05,039 Speaker 1: American life, Baldwin's accuracy and reproducing that world stands as 17 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:09,279 Speaker 1: a remarkable achievement. His accuracy was key and his works 18 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:11,560 Speaker 1: the reader could resonate to the sounds of the street 19 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:14,840 Speaker 1: corner as drawn by Baldwin, could feel the anger of 20 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: black Americans so long denied a role in American life. 21 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: As Baldwin wrote about that anger, black people reading Baldwin 22 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 1: knew he wrote the truth. White people reading Baldwin sensed 23 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: his truth about the lives of black people and the 24 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: sins of a racist nation. Interest in James Baldwin's work 25 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 1: has just really grown in the United States over the 26 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: last several years, in conjunction with the Black Lives Matter movement. 27 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 1: His nineteen sixty three book The Fire Next Time is 28 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: frequently on anti racism reading lists. Sometimes it's paired up 29 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,080 Speaker 1: with Tana hassy Coats Between the World and Me, which 30 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 1: was inspired by it, or with The Fire This Time 31 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: a New Generation Speaks about Race. That's a book that 32 00:01:56,040 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: came out in Basically, James Baldwin was a brilliant essayist 33 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,520 Speaker 1: and one of the chroniclers of the civil rights movement 34 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: and a really powerful voice against racism. And that is 35 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,040 Speaker 1: why we are talking about him today. So we're gonna 36 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: start with his background. James Baldwin was born James Arthur 37 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: Jones in Harlem, New York, on August two. His mother 38 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: was Emma Bertas Jones, and she was a domestic worker 39 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: When James was born, Emma was not married and she 40 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 1: never told him who his biological father was. When James 41 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: was three, his mother married David Baldwin, who was a 42 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: factory worker and an evangelical minister, and they went on 43 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,920 Speaker 1: to have eight children together. The family was really poor. 44 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,320 Speaker 1: They were living in a part of Harlem that Baldwin 45 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:43,360 Speaker 1: later called Junkie's Hollow, and part of James's early years 46 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 1: also took place during the Great Depression. David Baldwin was strict, unyielding, authoritarian, 47 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,520 Speaker 1: and cruel, including telling James that he was ugly and 48 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: reminding him of the circumstances of his birth, and of 49 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:00,080 Speaker 1: course that was heavily stigmatized at the time. At as 50 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: an adult, Baldwin described as a whole household constantly working 51 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 1: to appease his stepfather. James also said David taught him 52 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: to fight because he had to continually fight back with patients, 53 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 1: and a kind of ruthless determination, because I had to 54 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: endure it, to go under and come back up to wait. 55 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: James Baldwin attributed his stepfather's treatment of him and his 56 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:24,800 Speaker 1: mother and siblings as being the product of living as 57 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: a proud man in a racist society where he just 58 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: could not make enough money to really support his family. 59 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 1: And Baldwin also credited his younger siblings as being a 60 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:37,720 Speaker 1: big part of what kept him off the streets and 61 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: largely out of trouble in his youth. As the oldest, 62 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: James was always helping to look after the younger ones, 63 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,480 Speaker 1: and that was something he described doing with a book 64 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: in one hand, because reading became one of his biggest 65 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: means of escape. He liked to tell people that he 66 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: read every volume in Harlem's library branches and that he 67 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: had to go to the New York Public Library on 68 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: Fort Street to find any books that he hadn't read yet. 69 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: He also credited religion with helping to keep him out 70 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: of trouble. He had a religious conversion experience at the 71 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: age of fourteen and became a youth minister at Fireside 72 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: Pentecostal Assembly. He was a youth minister for three years, 73 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:18,160 Speaker 1: and during that time he crafted his use of language 74 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: and his speaking style. Throughout all this, James had been 75 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,480 Speaker 1: attending New York Public schools, first at PS twenty four, 76 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: whose principle was Gertrude Ayres. That was the first black 77 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:31,800 Speaker 1: principle in New York City. From there, he moved to 78 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:35,440 Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas Junior High School, where Harlem Renaissance poet County 79 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: Cullen was his French teacher and the director of the 80 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:42,279 Speaker 1: school's literary club. While at Frederick Douglas Junior High, James 81 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: was editor of the school's newspaper, The Douglas Pilot, and 82 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: also tried to make money to help the family buy 83 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:51,440 Speaker 1: shining shoes and selling shopping bags. For high school, James 84 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,680 Speaker 1: was selected to attend DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. 85 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: This was one of New York's more elite schools, with 86 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,919 Speaker 1: a predominantly Jewish student body. There, James again worked on 87 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: the school newspaper, The Magpie, and he excelled in his 88 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,080 Speaker 1: English and history courses. He also meant painter view for Delaney, 89 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,680 Speaker 1: who became a friend and something of a mentor, as 90 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 1: he demonstrated for Baldwin that a black man could become 91 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:17,880 Speaker 1: an artist. James didn't do nearly as well and as 92 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: other courses as he did in English and history, and 93 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:24,479 Speaker 1: his high school years were personally very turbulent. In addition 94 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: to all the stresses of his home life, he had 95 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:30,560 Speaker 1: started to question his sexuality. He had also started questioning 96 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,320 Speaker 1: the church as he began to learn about the ways 97 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 1: that Christianity had been used as a weapon during slavery, 98 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:39,839 Speaker 1: and as he heard people within his church and his 99 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: stepfather make anti Semitic comments. He ultimately left the church 100 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:47,720 Speaker 1: in ninety one. James Baldwin graduated from high school in 101 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:51,160 Speaker 1: nineteen two, six months after the rest of his class. 102 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: The internal turmoil connected to his faith in his sexuality 103 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,760 Speaker 1: contributed to a mental health crisis that derailed his studies. 104 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:01,279 Speaker 1: He had hoped to go to the City College of 105 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: New York, but he couldn't afford a tuition. Instead, he 106 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:07,600 Speaker 1: got a defense industry job in bell Mead, New Jersey, 107 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: to try to help support his family financially. By this point, 108 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: James's stepfather was struggling with his own mental health, with 109 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: symptoms that included depression and paranoia. Baldwin's job in bell 110 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:23,159 Speaker 1: Mead involved building a new Army quartermaster depot, and it 111 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:27,760 Speaker 1: was Baldwin's first real experience with overt racism on the job. 112 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:31,520 Speaker 1: The U. S Army was still segregated, and Baldwin continued 113 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:33,800 Speaker 1: to act the way he had acted back in Harlem 114 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: when he was around white Southern service members, and they, 115 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:40,279 Speaker 1: of course expected him to be totally deferential to them 116 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: and to stay out of their way. Of course, racism 117 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:45,840 Speaker 1: had existed in Harlem as well, but this was a 118 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: whole different set of social expectations and consequences. Baldwin described 119 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: this experience as learning what it meant to be a Negro. 120 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:57,159 Speaker 1: He refused to back down in the face of racism 121 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: and harassment on the job, and he was fired. A 122 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: friend helped him get his job back, and when the 123 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,479 Speaker 1: harassment resumed, he again pushed back against it and was 124 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 1: once again fired. On his last night in Belle Meade, 125 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: Baldwin and some friends were refused service as a diner 126 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:16,239 Speaker 1: because of their race, and Baldwin really reached a breaking point. 127 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:19,280 Speaker 1: He threw a water picture and that shattered the mirror 128 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: behind the bar. He described this moment as revelatory, realizing 129 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:27,120 Speaker 1: that he had been angry enough to kill someone and 130 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,720 Speaker 1: that his own life was in danger, and his words 131 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: quote from the hatred I carried in my own heart. 132 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:38,280 Speaker 1: David Baldwin Sr. Died on July three, which was also 133 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:42,400 Speaker 1: the day James's youngest sibling, Paul Maria, was born. Two 134 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: days later on August one, and uprising swept through Harlem. 135 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: It was sparked when a black soldier tried to intervene 136 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:51,600 Speaker 1: as a white police officer was trying to arrest a 137 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 1: black woman. The officer shot the soldier, and rumors spread 138 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 1: that he had been killed. This was one of a 139 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,240 Speaker 1: series of similar riots that took place in cities around 140 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: the United States in ninety three, and in Harlem, six 141 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:07,960 Speaker 1: black people were killed as thousands of police were dispatched 142 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: in response to the violence. Baldwin really felt like living 143 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 1: in Harlem had become untenable, and he moved to Greenwich 144 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: Village to try to make a living as a writer, 145 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: while also waiting tables and doing other work just to 146 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: try to make ends meet and to send what money 147 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: he could back to his family. He had relationships with 148 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 1: men and with women, and at one point became engaged 149 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 1: to a woman, but ultimately broke off that engagement. He 150 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:32,840 Speaker 1: also became friends with a man named Eugene Worse, who 151 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,679 Speaker 1: encouraged Baldwin to join the Young People's Socialist League. Although 152 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:39,920 Speaker 1: it's not entirely clear how long Baldwin was involved or 153 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 1: exactly what his involvement even was in the years just 154 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,199 Speaker 1: after World War Two, he spent at least some time 155 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: with various political groups that were connected to things like socialism, communism, 156 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,320 Speaker 1: and labor rights, but he didn't become exclusively focused on 157 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,360 Speaker 1: any of them, or in some cases ever officially become 158 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: a member. One of the biography US that I read 159 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:03,280 Speaker 1: of him characterized this period is kind of bouncing around 160 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: from one group to another, getting a sense of what 161 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:08,960 Speaker 1: different ideas were, but not really committing to any of them. 162 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:14,040 Speaker 1: At that point in Baldwin met Richard Wright, who helped 163 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:17,679 Speaker 1: him get Harper's Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship, and that fellowship 164 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: provided some of the funding to help him launch a 165 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:24,800 Speaker 1: literary career. He started getting published and established magazines, but 166 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,080 Speaker 1: then in ninety six, Eugene Worth died by suicide. That 167 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:31,040 Speaker 1: was something that traumatized and haunted Baldwin for the rest 168 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:34,640 Speaker 1: of his life. Two years later, Baldwin had become certain 169 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:36,920 Speaker 1: that he could not live in the United States anymore. 170 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 1: It circled back to what he had realized that last 171 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 1: night in Belle Meade. He had a clear minded certainty 172 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:46,040 Speaker 1: that if he didn't leave the US and its systematic 173 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:49,080 Speaker 1: racism and oppression, he would be killed, or he would 174 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:52,720 Speaker 1: kill someone. He finally decided to go to France at 175 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: the age of twenty four. We'll get to that. After 176 00:09:55,679 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: a quick sponsor break, James Baldwin left for Paris on 177 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 1: November eleventh, using the last of the money from a 178 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,839 Speaker 1: fellowship to pay for a one way ticket by sea. 179 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: Beyond that, he had almost no money, virtually no connections, 180 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,400 Speaker 1: and nowhere to stay. He also did not speak French. 181 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:23,120 Speaker 1: In his words quote, I had no idea what might 182 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:25,680 Speaker 1: happen to me in France, but I was very clear 183 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:29,040 Speaker 1: what would happen if I remained in New York. Baldwin 184 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:32,480 Speaker 1: faced some criticism for leaving the US, with people arguing 185 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: that he was abandoning a country that he should have 186 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:37,960 Speaker 1: stayed in and tried to help fix. But this first 187 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: stretch of time in Paris was critically important to his 188 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: work and identity as a writer. Unlike many of the 189 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,680 Speaker 1: other writers and artists who left the US for Paris, 190 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,719 Speaker 1: he didn't think of himself as an expatriate, but more 191 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: as a commuter. He still felt a deep connection to 192 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:55,960 Speaker 1: the United States, and he made frequent trips back, and 193 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 1: he spent long stretches of time in other parts of 194 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:03,120 Speaker 1: the world, including Istanbul. Shortly after arriving in Paris, Baldwin 195 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:07,559 Speaker 1: met Swiss artist Lucien Happersburger, who was white, bisexual, and 196 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: at one point married to a woman. When they met, 197 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:14,240 Speaker 1: Baldwin was twenty four and Happersburger was seventeen. They eventually 198 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:17,560 Speaker 1: started a relationship that went on for almost forty years. 199 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:21,120 Speaker 1: Baldwin described Happersburger as the love of his life, and 200 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:25,680 Speaker 1: he became godfather to Happersburger's children. Along with other relationships 201 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,800 Speaker 1: in his life, Happersburger was one of the inspirations for 202 00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:34,080 Speaker 1: Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room. While in France, Baldwin wrote Everybody's 203 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 1: Protest novel, which argued that political novels like Harriet Beecher 204 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 1: Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Richard Wright's Native Son were 205 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:47,480 Speaker 1: reinforcing stereotypes about black people and in particular, dehumanizing black men. 206 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:51,719 Speaker 1: Although Wright had helped Baldwin secure his first writing fellowship, 207 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 1: the two men did not see eye to eye on 208 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:57,080 Speaker 1: a number of issues, and they frequently criticized one another. 209 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:02,280 Speaker 1: On December nineteenth, Aldwin was arrested for being in receipt 210 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,920 Speaker 1: of stolen property after he borrowed a bed sheet that 211 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,479 Speaker 1: a friend had stolen from a hotel. This whole experience 212 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:12,120 Speaker 1: led him to think about identity and policing in the 213 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 1: United States versus in France. The police in France saw 214 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:18,400 Speaker 1: him as an American, while police in New York would 215 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 1: have seen him as an inherently criminal problem. But he 216 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,199 Speaker 1: also became aware that most of the people who were 217 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 1: in jail with him in Paris were from Northern Africa, 218 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:30,400 Speaker 1: and that French colonialism had its own part to play 219 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:34,000 Speaker 1: in racism in France. This first stretch of time in 220 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:37,320 Speaker 1: France let Baldwin look back on the US from a distance, 221 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:40,520 Speaker 1: seeing things from angles that just were not possible for 222 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,320 Speaker 1: him while he was living in it. He started coming 223 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:45,720 Speaker 1: to terms with both his own history and with his 224 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:49,360 Speaker 1: sexuality while living in France. In Switzerland, he finished his 225 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,800 Speaker 1: semi autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain she 226 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:55,440 Speaker 1: had actually started writing in high school, as well as 227 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,400 Speaker 1: a plague called the Amen Corner, and a series of 228 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:01,680 Speaker 1: essays in nine In fifty two, Baldwin made a trip 229 00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:04,920 Speaker 1: back to the US with financial help from Marlon Brando. 230 00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:07,960 Speaker 1: He was awarded a Googgenheim Fellowship in June of nineteen 231 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,960 Speaker 1: fifty four, and other fellowships followed. In nineteen fifty nine, 232 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:14,520 Speaker 1: he was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to work on 233 00:13:14,559 --> 00:13:18,199 Speaker 1: the novel Another Country, when this novel included a fictionalized 234 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: depiction of his friendship with Eugene Worth, including worth suicide. 235 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:26,200 Speaker 1: Professor in literary critic Fred Stanley later wrote of Another 236 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:30,400 Speaker 1: Country quote, Baldwin has been audacious enough, prior to most 237 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:34,920 Speaker 1: other artists to grapple candidly with the usually taboo subjects 238 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:40,439 Speaker 1: of American society and culture, interracial sexual intercourse, homosexuality as 239 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 1: a normative mode of experience, and bisexuality as a real phenomenon. 240 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:48,320 Speaker 1: After similar back and forth travel, Baldwin returned to the 241 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: US for a longer stretch, starting in July of nineteen 242 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:54,200 Speaker 1: fifty seven. A lot of his written work during this 243 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:57,840 Speaker 1: time documents or reflects on the Civil Rights movement, a 244 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:00,959 Speaker 1: movement that he wasn't really sure how he fit into. 245 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:03,720 Speaker 1: He had become well known and well established as a 246 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,000 Speaker 1: writer by this point, and while he did not want 247 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:10,360 Speaker 1: to describe himself as the movement spokesperson, there were definitely 248 00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:13,000 Speaker 1: people who thought of him that way. As the civil 249 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 1: rights movement grew and evolved, Baldwin found himself aligned in 250 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 1: some ways with Martin Luther King Jr's approach through non 251 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:23,120 Speaker 1: violent action, that in other ways with Malcolm X, the 252 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:26,400 Speaker 1: Nation of Islam, and the Black Power movement, for example, 253 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,040 Speaker 1: As time went on, Baldwin increasingly favored the Black Power 254 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:34,000 Speaker 1: movement's focus on immediate radical change instead of non violent 255 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:37,960 Speaker 1: incremental progress, but he really did not agree with the 256 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:42,080 Speaker 1: Black Power movements focus on black separatism. One hallmark of 257 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:44,920 Speaker 1: Baldwin's writing during the Civil rights movement was that it 258 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: was accessible to and sometimes written specifically for a white audience. 259 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: Much of this written work carried an implicit or explicit 260 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,880 Speaker 1: warning that racism was not just harming black people, that 261 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,320 Speaker 1: it was also destroying white people as well. Some of 262 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 1: it has also been described as prophetic, foreseeing that the 263 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 1: movement would become more militant if non violent activism did 264 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,160 Speaker 1: not meet its goals, and foreseeing that white activism would 265 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: turn away from that militancy. Baldwin's work in the movement 266 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 1: was not just about writing, though he also made speeches, 267 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:23,720 Speaker 1: He donated money, wrote letters sci petitions organized during the 268 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: lunch counter sit ins that we talked about on the show. 269 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,480 Speaker 1: Earlier this year, James Baldwin traveled to Tallahassee to interview 270 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:33,120 Speaker 1: student demonstrators. In nineteen sixty one, he became a sponsor 271 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,040 Speaker 1: for the National Committee for a Saying Nuclear Policy, and 272 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: he also helped sponsor a rally to disband the House 273 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: An American Activities Committee. In nineteen sixty three, he took 274 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: a speaking tour through the South in conjunction with the 275 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: Congress of Racial Equality. During this tour, he met and 276 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: started working with civil rights activists and in double a 277 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:56,040 Speaker 1: cp field secretary Medgar Evers. Baldwin's book The Fire Next 278 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:58,960 Speaker 1: Time came out during this tour as well. It contains 279 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,600 Speaker 1: two essays, My Dungeon Shook Letter to my Nephew on 280 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:06,520 Speaker 1: the one anniversary of the Emancipation and Down at the 281 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:10,200 Speaker 1: Cross Letter from a Region of My Mind. The latter 282 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:14,520 Speaker 1: essay dwells on Baldwin's experiences with religion, including both Christianity 283 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:18,239 Speaker 1: and the Nation of Islam, relating them to race and racism, 284 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:21,600 Speaker 1: and reflecting on his own beliefs. The Fire Next Time 285 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 1: spent more than forty weeks in the top five of 286 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: the New York Times bestseller List on May seventeenth, nineteen 287 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 1: sixty three, during Martin Luther King Jr's Birmingham campaign, Baldwin 288 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: was on the cover of Time magazine under a banner 289 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:39,160 Speaker 1: that read Birmingham and Beyond the Negro Pushed for Equality. 290 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 1: A few days before that Time magazine cover, Baldwin had 291 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 1: sent a telegram to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy criticizing 292 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,600 Speaker 1: the United States lack of response to the civil rights movement, 293 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:54,760 Speaker 1: especially in the face of increasing violence and brutality against 294 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,760 Speaker 1: the people who were participating in that movement. Baldwin framed 295 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,520 Speaker 1: this inaction in the failure of the nation to make 296 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:05,560 Speaker 1: black liberation a priority, as a moral treason. The result 297 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:08,399 Speaker 1: was that Kennedy met with Baldwin for breakfast on May, 298 00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:12,800 Speaker 1: asking him to gather writers and activists to meet with him. 299 00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:16,200 Speaker 1: The next day. They met in Kennedy's apartment in New York, 300 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:19,560 Speaker 1: where Kennedy was joined by Department of Justice lawyer Burke Marshall. 301 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,560 Speaker 1: Baldwin had brought his brother David, as well as Harry Belafonte, 302 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,320 Speaker 1: Lorraine Handsbury, Lena Horn, and Ripped Torn, along with representatives 303 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:32,479 Speaker 1: from the Chicago Urban League, Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited, the 304 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 1: n double A CP, and core Clarence Benjamin Jones, who 305 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:39,800 Speaker 1: is one of Martin Luther King Junior's advisers, was also there. 306 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:42,760 Speaker 1: The Kennedy's goal for this meeting was not so much 307 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:45,399 Speaker 1: to get a sense of what Black Americans needed, or 308 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:47,919 Speaker 1: what the civil rights movement's goals were or how the 309 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:51,520 Speaker 1: government might incorporate those goals. He was more focused on 310 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,119 Speaker 1: figuring out who among them might serve as sort of 311 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 1: a mouthpiece for the government, promoting the government's policies to 312 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:02,359 Speaker 1: the black community to improve ray relations, and also on 313 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:05,080 Speaker 1: outlining what the government had done already so far to 314 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:09,960 Speaker 1: the assembled group while basically asking for their patients uh. 315 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 1: This meeting consequently did not go well. Baldwin and the 316 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,720 Speaker 1: other assembled activists were trying to describe the systemic racism 317 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:20,680 Speaker 1: that went well beyond what was encoded in law, while 318 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:23,479 Speaker 1: Kennedy was talking about how his own family had been 319 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:27,720 Speaker 1: oppressed for being Irish. Kennedy came off as deeply naive 320 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:32,320 Speaker 1: and unwilling to listen. Eventually, Lorraine Hansbury walked out and 321 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:37,680 Speaker 1: several others followed. Afterward, the FBI started monitoring Baldwin, placing 322 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:41,280 Speaker 1: him on its Security Index of potentially dangerous people and 323 00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:44,000 Speaker 1: amassing a file on him that was more than seventeen 324 00:18:44,119 --> 00:18:48,560 Speaker 1: hundred pages long. This meeting, though while not immediately successful, 325 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:52,720 Speaker 1: is often credited with starting to shift Robert Kennedy's perspectives, 326 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:56,679 Speaker 1: leading him to encourage his brother, President John F. Kennedy 327 00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: to address the nation on the subject of civil rights okay, 328 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,520 Speaker 1: and he gave his civil rights address on June eleventh, 329 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:05,919 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. In the early morning hours of June twelve, 330 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:09,359 Speaker 1: Medgar Evers was assassinated in his driveway in front of 331 00:19:09,359 --> 00:19:12,920 Speaker 1: his children. The culprit was Byrondella Beckwith, who was found 332 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:16,160 Speaker 1: guilty of the crime more than thirty years later. Baldwin 333 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: continued his writing and worked during the nineteen sixties, but 334 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,119 Speaker 1: the assassination of Medgar Evers was the first of a 335 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:24,639 Speaker 1: series of events that sort of shifted his work and 336 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:28,719 Speaker 1: his outlook. Others included the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing 337 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:31,760 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, as well as the assassinations of 338 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:34,200 Speaker 1: two other men that he had known and worked with, 339 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:38,000 Speaker 1: Malcolm X in nineteen sixty five and Martin Luther King Jr. 340 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:40,399 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty eight, and we're going to get to 341 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 1: more on that after we first have a sponsor break. 342 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:55,600 Speaker 1: As we noted earlier, James Baldwin never seemed really sure 343 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:59,080 Speaker 1: where he fit within the civil rights movement. Although he 344 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:02,240 Speaker 1: participated in the nineteen sixty three March on Washington for 345 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:04,880 Speaker 1: Jobs and Freedom, he wasn't a big part of its 346 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,600 Speaker 1: public presence or its planning. There's been some speculation that 347 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: this was because of his sexual orientation, but as we've 348 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:14,359 Speaker 1: noted on earlier episodes of the show, one of the 349 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,359 Speaker 1: major planners of the march was Bayard Rustin, who was 350 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,000 Speaker 1: also gay. It's more likely that Baldwin's views were becoming 351 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:23,800 Speaker 1: less and less aligned with Martin Luther King Jr's non 352 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:27,360 Speaker 1: violent arm of the movement. As time went on, Baldwin 353 00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:31,639 Speaker 1: became increasingly radical. When the Black Panther Party was established 354 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:35,040 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six, Baldwin supported many of its efforts, 355 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:39,600 Speaker 1: including school breakfast and lunch programs, community health care programs, 356 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: schools and arms self defense programs meant to protect black 357 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:47,640 Speaker 1: communities from violence, including violence at the hands of police. 358 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,680 Speaker 1: Baldwin's written work had always been focused on both racism 359 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 1: and homophobia, and he had been both critically acclaimed and 360 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:58,120 Speaker 1: a best seller through this work, But in the late 361 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,960 Speaker 1: sixties and early seventies or yours increasingly criticized him for 362 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:07,200 Speaker 1: becoming more pessimistic, accusatory, and vehement, and too directly focused 363 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,479 Speaker 1: on civil rights, as included the three act play Blues 364 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:12,840 Speaker 1: for Mr. Charlie, which was based on the murder of 365 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:16,520 Speaker 1: Emmett's Hill. And it wasn't just white literary reviewers who 366 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:21,040 Speaker 1: were criticizing his work. His advocacy for Palestinian liberation was 367 00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:25,600 Speaker 1: criticized as anti semitic, although he also criticized anti semitism 368 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,960 Speaker 1: within black activism. Members of the Black Arts movement criticized 369 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,400 Speaker 1: his work because it was intended, at least in part, 370 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,960 Speaker 1: for white audiences rather than being written for other black people. 371 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,800 Speaker 1: The non violent arm of the civil rights movement criticized 372 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 1: his more radical and confrontational views, while the Black Power 373 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: movement criticized his sexual orientation and his integrationist stances. His 374 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:52,919 Speaker 1: sexual orientation was also criticized from outside the movement. The 375 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,520 Speaker 1: Kennedy's nicknamed him Martin Luther Queen. He basically was criticized 376 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 1: from every conceivable direction. In nineteen seventy, Baldwin returned to France, 377 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:05,199 Speaker 1: where he bought a farmhouse in the medieval village of 378 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: Saint Paul Devance. Although he's still did a lot of traveling, 379 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:10,959 Speaker 1: this became his permanent home for the rest of his life. 380 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,920 Speaker 1: Locals named it Sa Baldwin. Baldwin's writing in political Views 381 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: had always been anti capitalist, anti colonial, anti imperialist, anti racist, 382 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:28,399 Speaker 1: anti homophobic, Pan African, pro Palestinian liberation, and against mass incarceration. 383 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: He also made connections between black liberation in the US 384 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,760 Speaker 1: and United States foreign policy, noting that a nation that 385 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:39,479 Speaker 1: truly supported black liberation would be supporting black freedom fighters 386 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:42,560 Speaker 1: elsewhere in the world and supporting people who were fighting 387 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:46,240 Speaker 1: for independence from colonial powers. All this work had also 388 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:50,440 Speaker 1: been primarily focused on men. In the nineteen seventies and eighties, 389 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,280 Speaker 1: that started to change, in part through televised conversations with 390 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:58,640 Speaker 1: poets Nicki Giovanni and past podcast subject Audrey Lord. Both 391 00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,760 Speaker 1: Women Really Is to Baldwin on issues of gender, gender roles, 392 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,639 Speaker 1: and sexuality, ultimately leading him to criticize the whiteness of 393 00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:10,159 Speaker 1: the mainstream feminist movement as well as it's homophobia and 394 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:14,960 Speaker 1: anti lesbianism, but like Bayard Ruston, James Baldwin never took 395 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:17,439 Speaker 1: a leadership role within the gay rights movement as it 396 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,880 Speaker 1: became more public and widespread in the nineteen seventies and eighties. 397 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:25,480 Speaker 1: He also expressed some ambivalence about exactly how to describe 398 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:30,200 Speaker 1: himself in his own identity. In one five interview, he said, 399 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:36,359 Speaker 1: quote those terms homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, our twentieth century terms 400 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:41,280 Speaker 1: which for me really have very little meaning. I've never myself, 401 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,760 Speaker 1: in watching myself and watching other people, been able to 402 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:48,800 Speaker 1: discern exactly where the barriers were. I read one piece 403 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,440 Speaker 1: as I was working on this that that noted that 404 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: this has some similarities to conversations happening today about all 405 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,600 Speaker 1: of these ideas being socially constructed and what they mean. Um. 406 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:02,720 Speaker 1: Baldwin continued to travel and teach and write and work 407 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:05,440 Speaker 1: until late in his life, but by the late nineteen 408 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,399 Speaker 1: eighties he was having serious issues with his health. He 409 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,600 Speaker 1: had developed hepatitis and experienced liver damage back in the 410 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,119 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, followed by two heart attacks. Then in nineteen 411 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,439 Speaker 1: eight seven he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. I actually 412 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: also found references that it was stomach cancer or pancreatic cancer, 413 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,320 Speaker 1: and I don't know which of those is correct. Regardless, 414 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,720 Speaker 1: though the cancer progressed really quickly. He gave his last 415 00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,080 Speaker 1: interview to journalist Quincy Troop just days before his death. 416 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: James Baldwin died on December one, nine seven, at the 417 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 1: age of sixty three. Lucien Happersberger was there with him, 418 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:43,040 Speaker 1: as well as a household attendant. His funeral was held 419 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,320 Speaker 1: at the Church of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan, 420 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,520 Speaker 1: with five thousand people in attendance. A Mary Baraca delivered 421 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:52,960 Speaker 1: the eulogy, with tributes from others including Maya Angelou and 422 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: Tony Morrison, and the words of Amary Baraca's eulogy quote, 423 00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,600 Speaker 1: this man traveled the earth, like its history and it's biographer. 424 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:08,040 Speaker 1: He reported, criticized, made beautiful, analyzed, cajoled, lyricized, attacked, saying 425 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,960 Speaker 1: made us think, made us better, made us consciously human 426 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: or perhaps more acidly pre human. And also in the 427 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:19,439 Speaker 1: words of Tony Morrison addressing the late Baldwin is Jemmy quote, 428 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:23,040 Speaker 1: in your hands language was handsome again. In your hands 429 00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,080 Speaker 1: we saw how it was meant to be. Neither bloodless 430 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,760 Speaker 1: nor bloody and yet alive. It should surprise no one 431 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:34,040 Speaker 1: who knows anything about Tony Morrison Um. That tribute to 432 00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:38,120 Speaker 1: Baldwin from the funeral is beautiful and I highly encourage 433 00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: reading it. During his lifetime, James Baldwin wrote twenty two books, 434 00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:45,080 Speaker 1: including six novels. He was a member of the National 435 00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:48,160 Speaker 1: Advisory Board of the Congress on Racial Equality, as well 436 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:50,800 Speaker 1: as being a member of the American Academy and Institute 437 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:54,280 Speaker 1: of Arts and Letters, the Author's League, the International Pen 438 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,800 Speaker 1: the Dramatist Guild, the Actor's Studio, and the National Committee 439 00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:01,919 Speaker 1: for a Sane Nuclear Paul to See. He also hoped 440 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,399 Speaker 1: that his home in France would be turned into a 441 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,200 Speaker 1: writer's colony after his death, but it was eventually sold 442 00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:10,680 Speaker 1: to developers and torn down. Baldwin had been a best 443 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:14,359 Speaker 1: seller during his career, especially during the prolific nineteen sixties, 444 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:16,359 Speaker 1: but by the end of his life he was not 445 00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,680 Speaker 1: as widely read. That started to change, as we said 446 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:21,439 Speaker 1: at the top of the show, with the rise of 447 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: the Black Lives Matter movement and the many connections between 448 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:29,399 Speaker 1: the movement and Baldwin's ideas and writings decades earlier. In 449 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,000 Speaker 1: the last few years, There's also been a film adaptation 450 00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:34,800 Speaker 1: of his novel If Beal Street Could Talk, which came out, 451 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,360 Speaker 1: as well as the award winning documentary called I Am 452 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:41,679 Speaker 1: Not Your Negro. As we said at the top of 453 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,000 Speaker 1: the show, Baldwin's work is frequently part of anti racism 454 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:48,400 Speaker 1: courses and reading lists, so we thought we would end 455 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,160 Speaker 1: with just a couple of quotes quickly from that work. 456 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,360 Speaker 1: One is from the end of the Fire Next Time quote, 457 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,280 Speaker 1: everything now we must assume is in our hands. We 458 00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: have no right to assume otherwise. If we, and now 459 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,840 Speaker 1: I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, 460 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,520 Speaker 1: who must, like lovers, insist on or create the consciousness 461 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,120 Speaker 1: of the others, do not falter in our duty. Now 462 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,120 Speaker 1: we may be able handful that we are to end 463 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: the racial nightmare and achieve our country and change the 464 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,320 Speaker 1: history of the world. If we do not now dare 465 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:23,240 Speaker 1: everything the fulfillment of that prophecy recreated from the Bible 466 00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:26,200 Speaker 1: in a song by a slave is upon us. God 467 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,399 Speaker 1: gave Noah the rainbow sign no more water, the fire 468 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,840 Speaker 1: next Time. The other quote is from an interview that 469 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:35,920 Speaker 1: he gave in nine where he said I'm optimistic about 470 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,000 Speaker 1: the future, but not about the future of this civilization. 471 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,320 Speaker 1: I'm optimistic about the civilization which will replace this one, 472 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,479 Speaker 1: and that is James Baldwin. UM. I talked to two 473 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:49,080 Speaker 1: various friends as I was trying to figure out what 474 00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:52,160 Speaker 1: I needed to work on next UM and then every 475 00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:55,680 Speaker 1: case when I said I think James Baldwin, the answer 476 00:27:55,760 --> 00:28:01,960 Speaker 1: was like, obviously yes, UM so yeah, I hope I 477 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: have done his life and work justice today. Would you 478 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:09,280 Speaker 1: also like to cover some listener mail? I have uh 479 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,640 Speaker 1: some listener mail from Jackie. It goes back to our 480 00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:16,000 Speaker 1: Bureau of Home Economics podcast and Jackie says, good afternoon, 481 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,560 Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy, thank you so much for the wonderful podcast. 482 00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 1: I found the podcast early on last year and was 483 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,960 Speaker 1: hooked immediately. I'm always excited when an episode coincides with 484 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,720 Speaker 1: something or someplace I've experienced. I'm a school counselor for 485 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,520 Speaker 1: a private school in Florida. This morning, as I listened 486 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: to the podcast about the Bureau of Home Economics, I 487 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,800 Speaker 1: realized I can finally share something with you. At my school, 488 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,240 Speaker 1: we still offer family consumer Sciences one and two. I've 489 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:41,600 Speaker 1: been in a few a few school districts in Florida, 490 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:43,520 Speaker 1: and this is the first school I've been at with 491 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:47,920 Speaker 1: this particular program. Family Consumer Science one is for incoming 492 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:53,120 Speaker 1: freshmen and throughout the year learn about child development, sewing, cooking, nutrition, 493 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:56,720 Speaker 1: and meal planning. Sewing normally coincides with fall, and the 494 00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,960 Speaker 1: students learned to sew pat jama bottoms. It is amusing 495 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,000 Speaker 1: before and after school to see the girls wear they're 496 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:06,560 Speaker 1: brightly colored pajama bottoms under their school uniforms to keep warm. 497 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:09,240 Speaker 1: I guess next year they will include face mask patterns. 498 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,920 Speaker 1: Family Consumer Science too, is for juniors and seniors and 499 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,560 Speaker 1: takes an approach to prepare them for going away to college. 500 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,160 Speaker 1: One semester is focused on health, nutrition, and of course food. 501 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:23,320 Speaker 1: The other semester focuses on management of personal finances. These 502 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:25,600 Speaker 1: classes are two of the most popular electives that we 503 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,720 Speaker 1: offer and typically have a waitlist. Boys and girls love 504 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,720 Speaker 1: this course and the faculty enjoys getting to sample the 505 00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,520 Speaker 1: goodies made. Also thank you for your work on the 506 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:38,200 Speaker 1: Rosewood incident in the Six Impossible episodes. As a school counselor, 507 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:40,920 Speaker 1: every spring, I walk students through the application of the 508 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,840 Speaker 1: Florida Bright Future Scholarship, a scholarship award for students who 509 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: decide to tend to higher education institution in the state. 510 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,600 Speaker 1: One of the questions on the application is are you 511 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:53,200 Speaker 1: a descendant of a family member that was affected by 512 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,480 Speaker 1: the Rosewood incident in Florida during the nineteen twenties. So 513 00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 1: many times students ask what it is, and counselors, including myself, 514 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,479 Speaker 1: glass over it. Up until your episode, I knew it 515 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:06,200 Speaker 1: was something terrible, but didn't know that details. Now when 516 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,520 Speaker 1: asked about it, I tell students and they get a 517 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: look of disbelief at something like that happened in their state. 518 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 1: With some it Foster's great conversations about how little Florida 519 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,960 Speaker 1: history they knew. Jackie goes on to talk about being 520 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 1: really delighted to learn that Frankie Manning was born in Jacksonville. Uh, 521 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,040 Speaker 1: and then says, thank you for your research. I listened 522 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:25,720 Speaker 1: to the podcast on my way to and from work 523 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:27,960 Speaker 1: or wherever else I'm traveling. You have made the ride 524 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:32,880 Speaker 1: more pleasurable and less lonely. Thank you so much, Jackie. Uh. Wow, 525 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:36,640 Speaker 1: I kind of wish I had had a class specifically 526 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:43,840 Speaker 1: about like the finances part. Uh. What I actually had 527 00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:45,840 Speaker 1: when I went off to college was this book. There 528 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,600 Speaker 1: were two of them. One was called Where's Mom went? 529 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:49,320 Speaker 1: Now that I need her? And the other was called 530 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:52,960 Speaker 1: Where's Dad uh now that I need him, which you 531 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,640 Speaker 1: know is unnecessarily gendered in a way. But the like 532 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:58,440 Speaker 1: the mom one talked about basic food stuff and basic 533 00:30:58,520 --> 00:30:59,880 Speaker 1: first aid and how to tell if you need to 534 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:02,640 Speaker 1: get to the doctor now um, and the dad one 535 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,920 Speaker 1: was like basic called maintenance and fixing stuff and that 536 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 1: kind of thing. Uh So a class probably would have 537 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:11,760 Speaker 1: been helpful anyway, Thank you, Jackie. Uh if you would 538 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:13,640 Speaker 1: like to write to us about the surrending other podcast 539 00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:16,440 Speaker 1: or history podcast at I heart radio dot com that 540 00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: we're all over social media at missed in History. That's 541 00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,719 Speaker 1: where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, of Pinterest and Instagram, 542 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:25,080 Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, 543 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:27,160 Speaker 1: then I heart radio app and anywhere else you get 544 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a 545 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I 546 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,920 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 547 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:43,040 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.