James Baldwin

James Baldwin was a renowned poet and African American activist. At the ages of fourteen and seventeen he became a preacher at the Fireside Pentecostal Assembly, this experience in the church would have a strong impact on his future writings. Baldwin would participate in school writings in his high schools magazine as a teenager. In 1943 he witnessed the Harlem Race Riots and the death of his father. This experience led him to become a father figure to his eight younger siblings and to work menial jobs in Greenwich Village while continuing his writing on the side. In 1948 after some success with his writings Baldwin relocated to Paris, France to escape the racism and homophobia he experienced in the United States. While in Paris he reconnected with his old mentor Richard Wright and met fellow writer Maya Angelou whom he remained close with. Baldwin would spend the next forty years travelling in Europe and parts of the Mediterranean. He would also come to the United States for short periods to visit his large family and to participate in civil rights events such as the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. After the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. all within five years of each other, Baldwin had an emotional breakdown and moved to St. Paul de Vence in southern France.