“Neither love nor terror makes one blind; indifference makes one blind.” – James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin, born August 2, 1924 in Harlem, New York, was a prominent novelist, poet, essayist and civil rights activist of the 20th century. Known for his stunningly eloquent and incisive prose, he explored issues of race, religion, and homosexuality in both written and spoken words.
Born to a single mother, Emma Jones, who later married his step-father, a Baptist minister named David Baldwin, he was the eldest of nine children. He never knew his biologial father, however, he considered David Baldwin to be his father despite a tense relationship borne from a deviation in values and lifestyle, and followed in his footsteps to become a youth preacher. Later, his experience in the Church would deeply influence his writing.
Speaking of writing, Baldwin was an avid reader and writer from a very young age, often retreating to the safe haven that was the public library and writing out his thoughts and experiences in the midst of life in a difficult world. His first novel, the critically acclamed Go Tell It on the Mountain was loosely based off of his life durng his time in the Church and would revisit his teenagedom.
During his young adulthood, Baldwin struggled to balance his writing career and providing for his family in an enviroment rife with racism and homophobia. He held an aprenticeship under author Richard Wright in Grenwich Village, which throughout different periods in the last century has been considered a hub for artists and writers and/or the LGBTQ+ community. Eventually, this aprencieship would lead to Baldwin obtaining a fellowship which would lead him to Paris, France. This allowed him to escape the rampant racial and sexual discrimination he faced as an LGBTQ+ Black man in the United States, and he would spend a good chunk of his life abroad, only briefly returning to the US.
“We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” – James Baldwin
Throughout the rest of his adult life, he wrote extensively about race and homosexuality, the former of which was in the midst of the Civil Rights movement and the latter of which was almost entirely unexplored in the forefront of the public conciousness at the time. He was a prominent figure in the Civil Rights movement aside from his writing—a journalist, orator and friend of many prominent activists at the time. He spoke at many legal proceedings and marches, and considered it his duty to tell the truth even if it was difficult to hear.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
When it came to his sexual orientation, he never placed a label upon himself because he considered the sexual binary and rigid boxes that the USA operated on to be restricting and unrealistic of human fluidity. However, he was open about his relationships and attraction to bother men and women, and in his works he explored many different characters of many different orientations.
On Deceber 1, 1987, James Baldwin passed away in Saint Paul de Vence, France from stomach cancer after an impactful and acclaaimed writing career.