Op-Ed by Clifford Jackson, Larchmont
August 2 , 2024 would have been the 100th Birthday of James Baldwin. He was born in Harlem near 125th not to far from where I was raised in Wagner houses 37 years later. He is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale near his friend Malcolm X who he debated about Americas history of racism in 1963.
He was one of the greatest writers and novelists that I have ever had the privilege of reading. “ The Fire Next Tiime” and “ Notes of a Native Sun “ Baldwin was able to speak to the pathological violence and racism of white America.”He was a gay black man that was a trail blazer in the LGBTQ plus community. Long before stonewall there was James Baldwin. His book “ Giovanni’s Room” touched on and talked about what gay men dealt with socially and internally as far as their rejection in a dominant heterosexual society.He grew up with a father who was very strict from a religious standpoint.
He had 5 other brothers and sisters who were younger than him. Being the oldest with an inchoate sense of duty growing up in American Apartheid in the 1920s and 30’s made him grow up faster than most. He went through unspeakable treatment as a black man in America including being physically assaulted by white police officers when he was 10 years old in Harlem. He was there in 1943 when the infamous “Harlem riot “ occurred precipitated by police violence in the community.
In 1948 he went to France and met his future partner and lover Lucien Harppersberger who was by his side when Baldwin died in France in 1987. Baldwin said “ when I went to France in 1948 nothing worse could happen me to me there that had not already happened to me living in the United States “. Baldwin said “ American History is the history of the Negro and it is not a pretty one”.
He was friends with Malcolm X and said regarding Malcolm X’s Firebrand condemnation of how evil white America was” What black people find in Malcolm X is a truth that has been so long denied in this racist society, he corroborates their reality!”. He appeared at the March on Washington along with Harry Belafonte , Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando and Charleton Heston. When Heston was on the right side of history before his perversion of his legacy later with the NRA. There
Was a round table discussion including all of these gentlemen after the March on Washington that was headed and hosted by Joseph Mankiewicz that I suggest everyone see, it is quite historically informative. Brando’s friendship with Baldwin at that time led to Brando’s support of the Black Panthers financially supporting them for years as well as Brando speaking and eulogizing at the funeral of 17 year old black panther member Bobby Hutton who was slaughtered by Oakland Police in 1968. Baldwin marched with Dr. King and the March against American apartheid in Selma in 1965 and faced the brutality and savage behavior of the Alabama state police.
He also faced homophobia from some black nationalists leaders who were just as ignorant as their white counterparts. James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin and Lorraine Hansberry were all part of the LGBTQ Community and were all human rights heroes. Notwithstanding Rustins support of Israel which certainly tarnished his legacy. Baldwin debated William F . Buckley at the Oxford Union in England on the question of “ Has the American Dream been at the expense of the American Negro on February 18th 1965 three days before Malcolm X’s assassination. Baldwin said “ Black people built this country working and bringing the goods to market for nothing, for nothing for 400 years.”
James Baldwin was my HERO and was the best of humanity and he rejected the pathologically depraved sickness of white America and like Malcolm X, Dr. King and Medgar Evers said “ I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO!”
