JAMES BALDWIN

JAMES BALDWIN, (1924 -1987) was a novelist, playwright, poet, and civil rights activist who helped define the Freedom Movement of the 1960s.

By 1983 James Baldwin was a professor in the African American Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He spent his retiring years in France before he died in 1987.

Narration:

Novelist, poet, and civil rights activist.  His name – James Baldwin.

Born in Harlem in 1924, James Arthur Baldwin grew up poor, and the oldest of nine.

He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and honed his writing skills in the school’s magazine.

By 17 he was writing essays and short stories that were compiled in his first non-fiction work Notes of a Native Son published in 1955.

His first novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain in 1953, a story of religious sin, guilt, and torment, was the catalyst of his fame.

His outspoken approach to issues of race and homosexuality was controversial.

He significantly influenced the Civil Rights Movement and was deeply involved in the 1963 March on Washington.

A literary giant, Baldwin’s voice and numerous works are significant threads of American culture.

James Baldwin – A Great American

Credits: Editor: Stacy T. Holmes, ACE, Narrator: Steve Schy, Music: PartnersinRhyme.com, Digital Collection: Library of Congress, Copyright: CBN Communications