James Baldwin

#JamesBaldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987): His voice is on the tongues of many #BLM protesters, even if they are not 100% aware that they are quoting his work. Born and raised in Harlem, Baldwin there began writing not only about the experiences of Black people in America but also what the experience was for queer People of Color in a nation that accepted neither. His literary works feature many gay or bisexual men and were written well before the #GayLiberationMovement. He was active in the #CivilRightsMovement, though not accepted by some because he was openly gay. It was because of this discrimination that he spent so much time in France, a point that some of his critics give to disavow him. Nevertheless, his work is cherished for giving honest accounts of black and queer life in America. His most famous work is arguably #TheFireNextTime, in which he opens with a letter to his nephew about his experiences being a black man in America. He tells his nephew, “I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it and I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it.” Some of his novels, like #GoTellItOnTheMountain and #IfBealeStreetCouldTalk have been made into feature films, while others have been collected into documentaries, such as 2016’s #IAmNotYourNegro. In it, he discusses the lives and assassinations of Medger Evers, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and what it meant for him personally and for the country. In some ways a visionary, Baldwin once said in an interview, “What white people have to do, is try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a n***** in the first place because I’m not a n*****, I’m a man, but if you think I’m a n*****, it means you need it.” In these times, his words can be taken with even more power, and hopefully with even more actionable steps to change America for the better. #PrideMonth #LGBTQIA #YouCannotEraseUs