“One of the things, though, that has always afflicted the American reality and the American vision is this aversion to history. History is not something you read about in a book, history is not even the past—it’s the present. Because everybody operates, whether or not we know it, out of assumptions which are produced and produced only by our history. Now the history of this country is not bloodier than other countries, but it’s bloody. It is not more criminal than that of other countries, but it’s criminal. Or in short, it’s not worse than the history of France or England or any country we can name—but it’s different.”

American writer and civil rights activist

James Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist. Born in 1924 and active through much of the 20th century, he became known for essays, novels, plays, and poems that spoke with unusual force about race, identity, and human equality. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain brought him wide attention, and Notes of a Native Son, published in 1955, helped establish him as a major public voice. He was also a notable orator, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States, and his 1965 debate with William F. Buckley is often remembered as a defining public exchange.