Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son

James Baldwin was deeply in tune with the social and political culture and climate surrounding him. His works focused on the lived experiences of individuals who explored themes of identity, pain, and love while navigating the larger context of racial and sexual discrimination. His connection to the pulse of society began during his childhood. Although his stepfather was strict and believed music and art were innately corrupt, young James felt drawn to the vibrant culture of the Harlem Renaissance around him. His French teacher was the poet Countee Cullen.

Baldwin heard many stories of bravery and hatred from across the ocean, and he was ready to be a part of real and lasting change in his home country. The stories that captivated his attention also captivated the attention of the world. In 1943, the same year that 19-year-old James lost his father, the Harlem riot broke out when a white police officer shot and killed a Black soldier named Robert Brandy. Harlem experienced a similar riot in 1964 when a police officer killed a Black teenager in front of his friends. The increased danger and prevalent police brutality in Harlem led Baldwin to move to Greenwich Village, where he met writers and artists who helped him launch his career as a writer. Nevertheless, Baldwin felt he could never be free enough to write boldly in such an oppressive environment. Paris introduced him to new opportunities, but the stories from home filled his pages.

One of these stories was the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The Supreme Court ruled the segregation of schools unconstitutional. Baldwin was affected by the image of six-year-old Ruby Bridges headed into school, flanked by US deputy marshals. Later, Baldwin interviewed activists and developed philosophies about education that were detailed in his frequently-anthologized speech, “A Talk to Teachers.”

Another story was that of a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till who was kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered by two white men. When Till’s mother saw her son’s body, she demanded that the world confront its hatred. She requested an open casket at her son’s funeral, and tens of thousands of people lined up to pay their respects. Baldwin’s second play, Blues for Mister Charlie, was based loosely on Emmett Till’s story, and Baldwin dedicated the book to civil rights activist Medgar Evers.

Baldwin also heard stories about the influential and thoughtful activist named Rosa Parks who, tired after a long day and a lifetime of fighting discrimination, refused to give up her seat for a white man on a bus in 1955. Parks became a cultural icon, propelling the civil rights movement into new territory. Baldwin wrote about the bus boycott in his 1960 essay “They Can’t Turn Back.”

In 1957, his first year back on American soil, Baldwin traveled to the deep South for the first time. His thoughts about his many subsequent visits to the South are detailed in the essay “Nobody Knows My Name: a Letter from the South,” presented in this collection in Chapter 6. Baldwin was a powerful voice that brought attention to the civil rights movement and the many complexities of racial discrimination. He attended marches and protests, including the 1963 March on Washington. This historic event brought 250,000 protesters to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC where Martin Luther King Jr. challenged others to share his dream in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Until his death in 1987, Baldwin remained a social and political activist. During a time when the FBI spied on and developed extensive dossiers on American intellectuals and writers, Baldwin was highly surveilled. The FBI file on Baldwin, compiled between 1960 and the early 1970s, was over 1,884 pages long and was far more expansive than files on other writers of the time, including Truman Capote and Richard Wright.

In an interview with The Paris Review, Baldwin insisted that writers should focus on subject matter that irritates them, something they feel so compelled to write about that they believe they might die if they do not. For Baldwin, the price of silence was death, so he ensured that the voices of his friends and loved ones—including Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evers—would not be stifled.