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James Baldwin



James Baldwin (1924–1987) was an American novelist, essayist, poet, playwright, social critic, and activist. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers and authors; his work often focused on the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement.

James Baldwin
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A Report from Occupied Territory

Negroes have always held, the lowest jobs, the most menial jobs, which are now being destroyed by automation. No remote provision has yet been made to absorb this labor surplus.

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25:52

James Baldwin: Interview (Florida Forum, Miami, 1963)

Author James Baldwin taped a candid and fascinating studio interview at WCKT-Miami in 1963. Featured in this edition of the long running program, “Florida Forum”: questions by an in-studio audience and a panel of local journalists.

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No Name in the Street

In this stunningly personal document, James Baldwin remembers in vivid details the Harlem childhood that shaped his early consciousness and the later events that scored his heart with pain—the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns in Europe and in Hollywood, and his return to the...

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FindCenter Quotes ImageTo be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.

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The Time James Baldwin Told UC Berkeley that Black Lives Matter

The 27-minute speech was one of many scathing post–civil rights movement critiques Baldwin delivered throughout the country about the treatment of Black people in America.

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28:07

1984 James Baldwin Interview • Hampshire College Archives and Special Collections

James Baldwin was the Five College Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature from 1983 to 1986. He was based at Hampshire College during this time. In May of 1984, Baldwin took part in an episode of Five College Journal, a locally produced, on-campus news program at Hampshire.

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The Devil Finds Work

Baldwin’s personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also an appraisal of American racial politics.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageTo accept one’s past—one’s history—is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it.

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Reading James Baldwin Can Help Heal the Wounds of Racial Division

Baldwin’s words explore what hatred can do not only to society at large but to the individual who bears it.

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05:21

What James Baldwin’s Work Means for a Nation Having a Reckoning on Race | The 11Th Hour | MSNBC

Eddie Glaude, Jr. joins to discuss his new biography on the late, great American writer James Baldwin and the lessons his thoughts on race still hold for America in the age of Trump. Aired on 7/06/2020.

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Martin Luther King Jr.