Black History Month - James Baldwin, the civil rights writer [fr]
A major figure in the struggle for civil rights, James Baldwin left his mark on the 20th century in the United States, but also in France, where he produced some of his most emblematic works. In honor of Black History Month, which celebrates the achievements of African-Americans and highlights their central place in American history, we take a look back at this exceptional figure.
James Arthur Baldwin was born in 1924 in Harlem, New York, and grew up in an America deeply marked by racial discrimination, where segregation and poverty shaped his social conscience. His childhood neighborhood would later inspire his first essay, The Harlem Ghetto (1948).
Unhappy in New York, where he knew it was impossible to fully live his identity as a black gay man, James Baldwin survived on newspaper articles in Greenwich Village, where he met his mentor Richard Wright, another icon of African-American literature. And like Wright, Baldwin finally sought refuge in Paris in 1948. He stayed for eight years, where he wrote his first and greatest novel, La Conversion (1953), a semi-autobiographical masterpiece exploring the racial and religious problems of African-American Pentecostals.
A great reader of Balzac, Baldwin found in Paris not only a place to work, but also a literary subject. The city even became the backdrop for his second novel, La chambre de Giovanni (1956): "We loved every inch of France: the jam sessions in Pigalle, the nights spent smoking in Arab cafés, the mornings when we reminisced about our exploits in working-class cafés."
Leading a bohemian life from hotel to hotel, Baldwin, like his characters, haunted the cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a favorite haunt of the intellectual and cultural elite of the time. A lifelong introvert, he developed a thriving social life, frequenting the capital’s gay bars, debating with Sartre and Beauvoir, and befriending other renowned expatriates such as Maya Angelou and Beauford Delaney.
The civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s drew Baldwin back to American soil. His role in the struggle for racial equality became significant, with poignant writings such as The Fire Next Time (1963) resonating as calls to action and mutual understanding. He became close to Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, and took part in the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963.
Baldwin did not abandon France, which he visited regularly. He led a march in Paris in support of the civil rights movement, and his commitment also extended to anti-colonial movements.
The successive assassinations of Evers, Malcolm X and King in the late 1960s plunged Baldwin into a nervous breakdown. In 1971, he moved permanently to France, settling in a small village in Provence, Saint-Paul de Vence, which was to become his final resting place. There, he welcomed his French and American friends: Marc Chagall, Ella Fitzgerald, Yves Montand, Josephine Baker, Nina Simone...
Baldwin died of stomach cancer on December 1, 1987, a year after receiving the Legion of Honor, the highest national decoration in France.
A prolific writer of novels, essays, plays and poetry, Baldwin influenced and continues to influence generations of artists and thinkers. His racial and social reflections are still cited today as sources of inspiration by activists in the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBT movement.
Learn more about the legacies of French-American history in New York on our interactive map "French American History in New York"on the Mapstr app!