Originally published in 1955, James Baldwin's first nonfiction book has become a classic. These searing essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and Americans abroad remain as powerful today as when they were written. "He named for me the things you feel but couldn't utter. . . . Jimmy's essays articulated for the first time to white America what it meant to be American and a black American at the same time."

"In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary...

"James Baldwin was an author, social critic, and activist known for his deep understanding of race and class in the United States. This book introduces readers to his speech from a 1965 debate at Cambridge University in which he argues for racial equality in the civil rights era. The social and political circumstances of the era are discussed as well as Baldwin's persuasive argument that, despite contributing to the making of the United States, African...

"In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry - that the black...

In the present historical moment, James Baldwin matters more than ever.

"James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public life—and whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwin’s many incarnations—'son of Harlem,' 'Black icon,' 'great twentieth-century writer,' 'race man,' 'prophet,' 'witness'—have reemerged in the digital age as Baldwin’s work becomes a touchstone for a new generation....

Award-winning journalist Herb Boyd, author of Sugar Ray Robinson's biography Pound for Pound, combines impeccable research with astute literary criticism in Baldwin's Harlem. Packed with telling anecdotes, this concise volume illuminates Baldwin's diverse views and his impressions of the community that would remain a consistent presence in virtually all his writing.

A literary biography describing the life, friends, and work of the American author.

"Taking up that challenge and drawing from Baldwin's fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and interviews, You Mean It or You Don't will spur today's progressives from conviction to action. It is not enough, authors Hollowell and McGhee urge us, to hold progressive views on racial justice, LGBTQ+ identity, and economic inequality. True and lasting change demands a response to Baldwin's radical challenge for moral commitment." --supplied by publisher.

"Acclaimed author and social critic James Baldwin (1924-1987) maintained that all American literature is intrinsically bound to the nation's social history and that all American writers are products of its political system. In seminal works such as Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, and The Fire Next Time, he expresses his profound belief that writers have the power to transform society, to engage the public, and to inspire and channel...