James Baldwin’s essay, ‘Letter from a Region in my Mind,’ first published in The New Yorker in 1962, presents a coming-of-age narrative that reveals race relations in the 1960s that eventually led to Baldwin’s conclusion that racial harmony, rather than racial division, was necessary in order for the nation to survive. The essay first focuses on socioeconomic disparities and cultural racism facing the black community during Baldwin’s teenage years, followed by a discussion of Baldwin’s experiences with both Christianity and Islam, and concludes with insights regard race relations he has learned from these experiences. The essay ultimately argues that social and cultural desegregation between whites and blacks would be beneficial for both races, as evidenced by his personal experiences against racism described in the first part; his disappointment in both Christianity and Islam for their divisiveness in the second part; and his eventual conclusion that racial division only creates further division, weakening the nation as a whole.
To place Baldwin’s essay in context, the essay was written during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Segregation in schools had previously been struck down by the Supreme Court in the famous Brown v. Board of Education decision made in 1954 (Nabers 223). However, this did not lead to schools immediately being filled with diverse student bodies. Instead, many schools remained segregated simply because neighborhoods remained segregated. The Civil Rights era also saw two main ideologies regarding how equality could be achieved: on one hand, followers of Martin Luther King, Jr., advocated peaceful integration and demanded fairness be provided by law.
On the other hand, followers of Malcolm X advocated that in order to achieve equality, black Americans should be willing to fight for this equality, even if their actions went against current laws (Marable and Mullings 63). Baldwin does not advocate one over the other, but instead presents his personal experiences as a way of framing his ultimate understanding that social desegregation was necessary (Tomlinson 140). This type of desegregation does not refer to allowing blacks and whites to share common spaces, but instead advocates they should build relationships with one another, as this would help resolve many racial issues that Baldwin observed.
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The beginning of the essay focuses on the socioeconomic disparities facing Harlem, and the lack of opportunity that existed for many who lived in this community. The narrative begins when Baldwin turned fourteen, and immediately describes a ‘religious crisis’ (Baldwin para. 1) that Baldwin observes. This crisis refers to a disillusionment against Christianity; from Baldwin’s understanding, the church provided safety from the outside world, which for him was full of ‘whores and pimps and racketeers’ (Baldwin para. 1).
At first, Baldwin finds himself committed to the church, even rising to the position of becoming a preacher while still a teenager. Baldwin recognized that committing to the church was a way to avoid a criminal career that many of his friends seemed destined for. However, what keeps him in the church is not a strict devotion to God, but instead because he liked the personal power it afforded him. Baldwin describes how he ‘relished the attention and the relative immunity from punishment that my new status gave me’ (Baldwin para. 12) while also recognizing that his devotion to the church was the ‘most dishonest’ (Baldwin para. 12) time of his life.
What Baldwin is describing is how he saw the church was a way to escape the systemic racism plaguing Harlem during this era, but his main reason for joining the church and becoming a preacher was not because he felt called to do so out of religious obligation; instead, he was simply trying to escape a life that was inevitable if he did not join the church. Much of the first part of this essay describes seeing how many of his peers ultimately dropped out of school because even after graduation, little opportunities existed. He sees how as he and his friends became teenagers, they began to resemble the criminals he would see on the street more and more, until they were indistinguishable. This first part of the essay is therefore a coming-of-age narrative, although what Baldwin ultimately realizes as he grows older is that his life has already been defined for him due to the color of his skin. This is what leads him to the church, but although he is a gifted preacher and able to deliver passionate sermons, he lacks a personal passion for Christianity.
The essay then shifts to a period of disillusionment. Although he feels compelled to try and convert others to Christianity while at school, he has little success. Many students at the school Baldwin attended were Jewish, and they would quickly shoot down any attempts at conversion by pointing out details that Baldwin cannot refute, such as many of the Gospels being written centuries after the life of Jesus. Ultimately, Baldwin soon realizes that ‘the Bible had been written by white men’ and that ‘according to many Christians, I was a descendent of Ham, who had been cursed’ (Baldwin para. 14). He soon begins to realize hypocrisies within the church, such as seeing how pastors ultimately bought Cadillacs while followers remained poor and working menial jobs. However, because there are no viable opportunities for Baldwin outside of the church, he feels stuck between two negative possibilities: either leave the church, and eventually end up no better than so many of his friends that have fallen to a life of crime; or remain in the church, but without having any personal faith and essentially feeling like a hypocrite.
When evaluated in regard to American society during this time, it becomes clear that Baldwin’s position is due to the lack of socioeconomic opportunity for black Americans. For Baldwin, the church is a way to escape a life of crime or poverty, but it also provides him no joy. He soon sees the black church as an accepted institution among white Americans, but it is only acceptable if it remains socially and culturally separate.
Baldwin’s disillusionment with Christianity eventually leads him to explore the fundamental history and teachings of Islam, which represents the second part of Baldwin’s larger essay. At this point in the narrative, Baldwin has concluded that Christianity is a religion for whites; he recalls a quote from a Black Muslim preacher that ‘The white man’s Heaven is the black man’s Hell’ (Baldwin para. 17). This leads him to seeking out Elijah Muhammad, a prominent leader in the Nation of Islam. Baldwin has already formed ideas that disagreed with Elijah’s teachings, particularly in the idea of a ‘separate black economy in America’ (Baldwin para. 17). However, Baldwin is still willing to meet with Elijah because he has found his own relationship with Christianity unfulfilling, and he is open to new ideas.
What Baldwin soon discovers upon meeting with Elijah is that the Nation of Islam advocates an adversarial relationship toward whites. Using religious doctrine as its philosophical basis, the religion he finds being advocated by Elijah is one that sees whites as inherently the enemy, and that instead of integration, a further adversarial conflict between the two should be encouraged. Whites were considered to be either deserving of anger or pity, but the two races should remain separate at all costs. Baldwin identifies how upon leaving his meeting with Elijah, he is offered a ride home in order to protect him from any whites who might wish to do his harm.
Baldwin acknowledges that he is actually on his way to meet several of his white friends, and almost hesitates giving Elijah the address where he should be taken, out of fear for their safety. Baldwin ultimately rejects Elijah’s message, but he cites this moment as the instance when he realized that although he was rejecting the Nation of Islam, he also fully realized that he was rejecting Christianity as well. Baldwin by this point has become disillusioned with religion entirely, as he sees any religion as an institution that, by design, seeks to keep blacks and whites segregated from one another. At this point, instead of identifying as a Christian, Baldwin simply identifies as being a writer.
These experiences eventually lead Baldwin to deliver his concluding thesis of his essay: that ‘America, of all the Western nations, has been best placed to prove the uselessness and the obsolescence of the concept of color’ (Baldwin para. 24). What he is advocating is a colorblind society, where the color of one’s skin does not matter. He writes, ‘We, the black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nation’ (Baldwin para. 25). He argues that instead of finding ways to divide society, true integration is necessary for the nation to grow and overcome its racial divisions. However, he acknowledges that many of the institutional forms of power belong to whites, so there needs to be more representation from blacks, particularly at the governmental level. In this way, Baldwin is advocating for a future similar to the one preached by Martin Luther King, Jr., arguing that people should not be viewed solely in regard to their skin color, as this is inherently divisive (Banks 240). Baldwin’s views stem not only from his experiences being discriminated against by white Americans in his youth, but also from the adversarial ideology presented by Elijah Muhammad.
Ultimately, Baldwin’s essay is an exploration at the causes of racial division in American society during the 1960s, and presents a possible solution to this division. The first part focuses on the plight being faced by many blacks, who face significant socioeconomic disadvantages and are given little opportunity to escape this condition. One method of escape is the church, although Baldwin is able to succeed in this area because he is a gifted speaker. However, he sees the black church as remaining segregated; while it allows him an opportunity outside of poverty, it does not afford him true social equality. This leads him to explore the Nation of Islam, although he similarly sees how divisive this ideology is toward racial equality.
The conclusion that Baldwin ultimately draws is that in order for the nation to become stronger, it needs to no longer see different communities based on color. What he is advocating for is political equality and unity, and more representation among blacks within government. However, he hopes that more inclusion does not lead to more conflict; instead, he idealizes a society where the color of one’s skin no longer matters. Baldwin’s essay therefore identifies how socioeconomic disadvantages, which are often supported by systemic racism as supported by biased laws, continue to create a division; and while religion may be a path for some to escape poverty, religion has similarly been equally divisive. The answer to racial division therefore must come through more social integration between the two races, so they will begin to see commonalities between them, rather than simply differences.
Works Cited
- Baldwin, James. ‘Letter from a Region in my Mind.’ The New Yorker, November 17, 1962.
- Banks, James A. ‘Approaches to multicultural curriculum reform.’ Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives 4 (2001): 225-246.
- Marable, Manning, and Leith Mullings. ‘The divided mind of Black America: race, ideology and politics in the post Civil Rights era.’ Race & Class 36.1 (1994): 61-72.
- Nabers, Deak. ‘Past Using James Baldwin and Civil Rights Law in the 1960s.’ The Yale Journal of Criticism 18.2 (2005): 221-242.
- Tomlinson, Robert. ” Payin’one’s dues’: expatriation as personal experience and paradigm in the works of James Baldwin.’ African American Review 33.1 (1999): 135-148.
