Traditionally, conversations about the Civil Right Movement refer to the career of Martin Luther King as a non-violent integrationist or Malcom X as a dominate separationist. James Baldwin who also played a major part in the Civil Rights Movement, although he did not dedicate to either side of the extremes. It was often seen that his view stuck the chord of both Malcom X and Dr. Martin Luther King. In his book The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin analyses the position of blacks in America a century after the Emancipation Proclamation which supposedly gave blacks their freedom. Within this book he expresses his views on both social and political integration. He uses the essay “My Dungeon Shook” as a plea to his nephew the importance of acceptance …show more content…
Along with Baldwin’s plea for social and political integration, Baldwin believes in hope and brotherhood, just as Dr. Martin Luther King. Baldwin suggests the only way for which both Negros and white American will transcend from the past is to accept it, in order to be released from it. Baldwin was an intelligent man who realized that without acceptance and love for all the issues between black and whites will forever exist. Like Dr. Martin Luther king Baldwin believe that the only way to improve blacks social position was to accept what the white had done and integrate peacefully. Within his letter to his nephew, he explains how the bitterness of his father leads him to suffer a terrible life he states “he was defeated long before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believes what white people said about him” (Baldwin, pg. 4). He tells his nephew that he must realize that it is none other than the white men of this country who have put them in this position, although we can’t blame them forever because” those innocents who believe that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp on reality. But these men are your brother- your lost, younger …show more content…
Baldwin explain how America functioned as a county and also as an ideal, so that would make it “extremely unlikely that Negroes will ever rise to power in the United States” (Baldwin, pg.83) Baldwin uses the example of how American Negros were kidnapped brought here and sold like animals and treated like ones. So there is no way there will ever be change in their situation without the most radical changes. With this statement Baldwin is showing his mix of ideals, here he is more aligned with Malcom X. Baldwin continues to explain how freedom in political terms is hard to obtain. The only way one will obtain it is they have to be “capable of bearing the burden” (Baldwin, pg. 91). Therefore, without the acceptance of that burden he principles of transformation into one nation will not let us recognize ourselves as we are. Baldwin directs this message mostly toward whites in America but also to the blacks. Baldwin very much like Dr. Martin Luther King was very hopeful that black and white could integrate and become one nation he states “black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nation- if we really, that is, to achieve out identity, our maturity, as men and women” (Baldwin, pg. 97) Although deep down in his heart he knew the only way for America and the people living here to become one was to let go of the past
The absence of true freedom is apparent in Baldwin?s other essays, in which he writes about the rampant prejudice and discrimination of the 1950?s and 60?s. Blacks during this time were limited as to where they could live, go to school, use the bathroom, eat, and drink. ?Such were the cases of a Nigerian second secretary who was rebuffed last week when he tried to order breakfast in Charlottesville, VA, and a Ghanaian second secret...
In 1955 a civil rights activist by the name of James Baldwin wrote his famous essay “Notes of a Native Son”. James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York during a time where racial tensions where high all throughout the United States. In this essay he highlights these tension and his experience’s regarding them, while also giving us an insight of his upbringing. Along with this we get to see his relationship with a figure of his life, his father or more accurately his stepfather. In the essay James Baldwin says “This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair”. This is a very powerful sentence that I believe
Martin Luther King believed in integration, he believed that everyone, blacks and whites should live and work together as equals. ‘I have a dream that … one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.' He held hope that one day black and white Americans would be united as one nation. This approach was crucial for engaging the white community. King was best able to expres...
Through every single obstacle a person went through no one gave up. Colored people did not lose hope in becoming equal to white people because they knew they were capable. What the author was trying to prove was exactly that. Although blacks were slaves and were always belittled by white they proved to be more than what the whites thought they were capable of. They stood up for themselves and they did it in several events that occurred in the book. For example, in the chapter a black teenager, James Crawford, was not slightly intimidated by a deputy registrar that attempted to sound intimidating. In the conversation the registrar made some menacing remarks to this young African American teenager saying he would put a bullet through the teenagers head. Not afraid at all, Crawford valiantly told him if it happened he would be dead, but people would come from all over the world. This young man was not afraid to stand up for himself and was not going to tolerate it in any way. Malcolm X was another inspiration to African Americans for the way he stood up for them. He had a strong connection with the people who were influenced by him. In late 1964, Malcolm X told a group of black students from Mississippi, “You’ll get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom; then you’ll get it” (Zinn 461). This quote connected to how
In James Baldwin’s novel, The Fire Next Time, Baldwin beliefs on integration are controversial to those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. Dr. King focused on non violence and an authentic voice. At the end of King’s speech he asks all Americans to join hands and sing, “We are free! We are free! Thank God Almighty we are free!” Dr. King believed that all men were equal humans and equally “free.” Whereas, Baldwin forces people to view the other side of things. Baldwin states, “White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this- which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never- the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.” (Baldwin, 22) By this statement, he believes that integration still exists and will always exist as long as whites consider themselves superior to black folks. Baldwin argues that white people have gone astray because they don’t want to lose their identity and that white people are simply stuck in history.
The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Bill of Rights, which were made to protect the citizenship of the African-American, thereby granting him the protection that each American citizen gained in the Constitution, there were no means to enforce these civil rights. People found ways to go around them, and thus took away the rights of African-Americans. In 1919, racial tensions between the black and white communities in Chicago erupted, causing a riot to start. This resulted from the animosity towards the growing black community of Chicago, which provided competition for housing and jobs. Mistrust between the police and black community in Chicago only lent violence as an answer to their problems, leading to a violent riot. James Baldwin, an essayist working for true civil rights for African-Americans, gives first-hand accounts of how black people were mistreated, and conveys how racial tensions built up antagonism in his essays “Notes of a Native Son,” and “Down at the Cross.”
...as a reader I must understand that his opinions are supported by his true, raw emotions. These negative feelings shared by all of his ancestors were too strong to just pass by as meaningless emotions. Baldwin created an outlook simply from his honest views on racial issues of his time, and ours. Baldwin?s essay puts the white American to shame simply by stating what he perceived as truth. Baldwin isn?t searching for sympathy by discussing his emotions, nor is he looking for an apology. I feel that he is pointing out the errors in Americans? thinking and probably saying, ?Look at what you people have to live with, if and when you come back to the reality of ?our? world.?
James Baldwin is one of the most influential people of not only his time, but even now. He did not believe in separation, he believed that we should all live together and love each other; not as blacks and whites but as human beings. Baldwin was known to just be ahead of his time, he had his eyes set on the future whilst others were not there yet. (Pfeffer). James Baldwin had a huge impact on the world then, and he still continues to every
Martin Luther King, Jr. is known to be a civil rights activist, humanitarian, a father, and a clergyman. He is well known for fighting for the equal rights of colored people and ending discrimination. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is an important part of history that showed King’s opinion of a letter that he happened to read in the newspaper written by a group of clergyman. In this letter, the group of clergyman report that colored people, also known as black people, are being violent towards Birmingham City. Also, the clergymen believed the time that will allow segregation to be diminished was not happening anytime soon because it is not convenient. King refuted the clergymen’s argument in a variety of ways using tactics of argumentation and persuasion like appeal to emotion through real life examples, appeal to logic, and even articulating certain phrases through metaphors and word choice. Many of these different tactics of argumentation and persuasion made his letter very effective and is now seen as a great piece that is looked upon highly today.
According to the documentary, Baldwin says that “The Negro has never been as quiet as white Americans wanted to believe. That was a myth. [They] were not singing and dancing; [they] were trying to keep alive; [they] were trying to survive. It was a very brutal system.” In different words, white Americans wanted to believe that African-Americans were in a happy place when in reality they weren’t. There was no happiness in them there was only fear and trying their best to stay alive under the brutal system society created among them. Also, in the letter Baldwin wrote to his nephew, he says “[he] was born where [he] was born and faced the future that [he] faced because [he] was black and for no other reason” (Baldwin). Baldwin is saying that what he goes through and well go through in his future is because he is black. This shows how the American society is a brutal clarity among blacks and treat them less fairly than whites in America. Society has a lot to do with the way individuals view each race and the American Society has a role of racism against
James Baldwin is described in the film James Baldwin – The Price of the Ticket as a man who resisted having to deal with the racism of the United States, but eventually found that he had to come back into the country to help defend the cause of civil rights. Baldwin was an American writer who was born in 1924 and died in 1987. He wrote a wide variety of different types of books, examining human experience and the way in which love was a part of that experience. However, he was also very active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He was a voice that helped to bring about understanding, even if sometimes it was by slapping White America in the face. His message
The first letter that Baldwin wrote to his nephew was about the difficulties he has faced as a result of being African American. He illustrates what he thinks
Baldwin inspires the many minds of the people of today with these aspiring literary pieces and the experiences they tell. He was widely known for his works Go Tell It on the Mountain, Going to Meet the Man, Sonny’s Blues, Giovanni’s Room, and the essays Notes of a Native Son besides being an activist for the Civil Rights movement. James Baldwin was an African American man who contributed much of his talent to the Black community, even until today. He stands as one of America’s Greatest Black authors as well as with the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community. From my personal perspective, James Baldwin is a very great author to learn from and even read in my leisure time as a student. With his literature, I can relate to the many things Baldwin describes as being Black in America. It is definitely different to walk down the street than other individuals due to the pigment of my skin or the way I am presented. Unfortunately, America has still yet to overcome racism. Will this nation ever will? Until America gets more comfortable with talking about race as one, then racism will still be the same as it’s ever been. Society has come a long way from what it used to be, how it used to function, and how people were seen and treated. Its people like James Baldwin to help
Martin Luther King once said, “As my sufferings mounted, I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” At the end of the 19th century, African Americans were only faced with poverty, slavery, and racial oppression. African Americans were not allowed to vote or exercise any fundamental rights. By the turn of the 20th century, some of them migrated to Harlem, New York, and created one of the most remarkable eras of cultural expression in the history- the Harlem Renaissance. Baldwin tries to convey the life in Harlem before the renaissance in Sonny’s Blues, which follows the
... and from it learns two key lessons to prevent a similar destruction of his own life. Baldwin first states that one must accept that “injustice is commonplace” (84). Prejudice, according to Baldwin, will always exist in life, whether it is against race, color or creed. But while prejudice is ever-present, Baldwin concludes “one must never…accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one’s strength” (84). In order to succeed in this fight, one must keep his “own heart free of hatred” (84). Thus according to Baldwin, the real fight is not black society versus white society, but rather man versus himself. It is only by winning this battle that one can avoid the path of destruction.