1924 - 1987
Overview:
Growing up in one of the biggest and most dangerous cities in the United States, James Baldwin knew the harshness that life could deal out, even though he was the son of a preacher. From an early age, he dedicated himself to writing, in an attempt to escape the world he lived in. He grew up to become one of the most profound writers of our time. He wrote about social inequalities, but focused on racial discrimination.
Country:
United States of America
Type
of hero: Economic and Social Rights
Attributes:
Writer, Civil Rights
Biography:
Born in the Harlem district of New York City, James Baldwin was the first of nine children in his family. His father was a preacher and Baldwin followed in his shoes by serving as a junior minister at the Fireside Pentecostal Assembly while a teenager. In his teenage years, Baldwin was an excellent student. Like many young people, he sought to escape his environment by reading and writing.
He graduated from High School in 1942 and took a job in New Jersey as a railroad hand to help support his brothers and sisters.
In 1943, determined to make writing his profession, he moved to Greenwich Village and began to write. Five years later, using the money from a fellowship, he moved to Paris where he remained for most of his life. This may have been a response to his disgust at the state of race relations in the United States at the time. His first novel – Go Tell It on The Mountain published in 1953 set up his ongoing position as a social commentator.
In 1960, he returned to the US and became politically active in support of Civil Rights. Much of his writing through to the 1970’s was influenced by his involvement in the civil rights movement. Through his writing, he was able to attempt to alter the daily environment of American blacks. He challenged racism and discrimination whenever he could. As a writer, he was in an excellent position to address many of the problems and highlight them to others. As a serious writer, he was a model for others.
Overall, he saw the problems of civil rights as one stemming from basic flaws in people. Too many people were using blacks as scapegoats for their own inadequacies. His view was that as human beings, we should be able to treat each other much better than we do.
Citations
& References:
Links:
http://www.bridgesweb.com/baldwin.html
http://www.public.asu.edu/~metro/aflit/baldwin/
http://www.bookwire.com/bbr/interviews/baldwin.html
http://www.artswire.org/ocountry/baldwin.htm
References
Bullock A., (Ed.) (1988) , Great Lives of the Twentieth Century Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London (p. 13)
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