James Baldwin

Posted: June 12, 2003

Harlem-born essayist-journalist-novelist James Baldwin (1924-1987) is considered one of the leading literary voices of the 20th Century.

His best-selling collection of essays on the state of Black America -- The Fire Next Time (Dell Publishing, 1963) -- made him a household name. The essays also won him the George Polk Memorial Award for outstanding magazine reporting.

Here is an excerpt from "Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation:"

"This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish. Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that, for the heart of the matter is here, and the root of my dispute with my country. You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence; you were expected to make peace with mediocrity ... I know your countrymen do not agree with me about this, and I hear them saying, ‘You exaggerate.’ They do not know Harlem, and I do. So do you. Take no one's word for anything, including mine -- but trust your experience. Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go."

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