James Baldwin at 100
In 1965, in the packed Cambridge Union Society in London, James Baldwin, a voice of the civil rights movement, debated the commentator William F. Buckley, who was skeptical of the cause. The motion: that “The American Dream has been achieved at the expense of the American Negro.”
Baldwin said, “It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, or 6, or 7, to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you.”
Baldwin won the debate in a landslide, 544 votes to 164.
“The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin
For more info:
- Exhibition: “JIMMY! God’s Black Revolutionary Mouth,” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem (through February 28, 2025)
- Exhibition: “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance,” at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. (through April 20, 2025)
- Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
- James Baldwin Digital Resource Guide (Smithsonian)
- “The Fire Next Time; Nobody Knows My Name; No Name in the Street; The Devil Finds Work” by James Baldwin (Everyman’s Library), in Hardcover, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
- JamesBaldwinBooks.com (Penguin Random House)
Story produced by Mary Raffalli. Editor: George Pozderec.
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Source: cbsnews.com