“The universe, which is not merely the stars and the moon and the planets, flowers, grass and trees, but other people, has evolved no terms for your existence, has made no room for you, and if love will not swing wide the gates, no other power will or can. And if one despairs-- as who has not?-- of human love, God's love alone is left.”

American writer and civil rights activist

James Arthur Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist. He became known for his essays, novels, plays, and poems, and for his forceful public voice during the civil rights movement in the United States. His novel Go Tell It on the Mountain was published in 1953, and Notes of a Native Son, the 1955 essay collection, helped establish his reputation as a writer committed to human equality. He also took part in a 1965 debate with William F. Buckley that is regarded as highly influential.