In Esquire’s July 1968 issue, published just after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., the magazine talked to James Baldwin about the state of race relations in the country. We’ve republished the interview in full—and his words are incredibly relevant today.
Read the landmark 1968 Q&A on race in America.
Image: U.S. Information Agency. Press and Publications Service. (ca. 1953 – ca. 1978), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The weariness can be seen in his face, heard in his voice, is written in his body language.
Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have a death wish; it means just the opposite. We have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible. When reactionary forces crush us, we must move against these forces, even at the risk of death. We will have to be driven out with a stick.”
― Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide
Robert Reid-Pharr delivered the 2019 James Weldon Johnson Memorial Lecture, on the topic, “Archives and Icons: James Baldwin and the Practice of Celebrity,” on October 29, 2019, cosponsored by the Department of African American Studies.
People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.
Baba sparked a deep sense of pride among African Americans by strongly promoting images of African culture, which in a subtle but significant way, helped set in motion the currents of the early civil rights movement,”
Early in her writing life, she was mentored by both W. E. B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes.
His documentary films include Lumumba, Death of a Prophet.
Extract from James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show
