4 Must-See Interviews With James Baldwin That Will Change Your Life

The insight and wisdom live on forever. 

A son of Harlem, James Baldwin was born in 1924 and was the oldest of nine children, PBS reports. He had a contentious relationship with his strict, religious stepfather, and at the beginning of his teen years, looked to follow in his footsteps as a preacher. Baldwin credits that time as pivotal in his life, the renowned author finding solace and belonging in writing.

“Those three years in the pulpit – I didn’t realize it then – that is what turned me into a writer, really, dealing with all that anguish and that despair and that beauty,” Baldwin once said. 

The day Baldwin decided to leave the pulpit, he knew he also had to leave the home, taking a job working for the New Jersey railroad when he was just 18. He eventually moved to Greenwich Village, working as a freelance writer on book reviews. His work caught the attention of novelist Richard Wright who helped him get a grant to support himself as a writer. 

In 1948, Baldwin moved to Paris, continuing his work and establishing himself as a preeminent voice on Black life. In 1953, he published his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, an autobiography about his time growing up in Harlem. The book shifted the landscape, and no other contemporary work about Black life up to that point had been more profound. Throughout the next decade, Baldwin moved about the globe from Paris to New York to Istanbul. He published a number of books and novels, writing essays about racial tension and taboo themes like homosexuality and interracial relationships. Baldwin’s literature was not only timely, but it was also thought-provoking, with many of his books becoming instant bestsellers. 

Baldwin said it was his living abroad that gave him the perspective needed to speak about Black life from a birds-eye view.

“Once you find yourself in another civilization, you’re forced to examine your own,” said Baldwin. 

During the 1960s, Baldwin felt a sense of urgency and responsibility, returning to the states to support the civil rights movement. There, he used his time to create work that explored the racial struggle and discussed Black identity, TIME magazine eventually putting Baldwin on their cover. His call for equality was one that touched the souls of many, and he became a leading voice in the civil rights movement. After the assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, he returned to France where he continued giving voice to the psychology and duplicity of Black life. Later in life, Baldwin began teaching to connect with the younger generation, passing away from stomach cancer in 1987 at the age of 63.