James Baldwin was an extremely influential author in the mid 1900’s that shed a light on the unfair treatment of black people, religion, and many other issues in his many successful novels. His work The Fire Next Time, written in 1963, primarily focused on two major issues in the book that is made up of two separate essays. The first essay is a letter written to his nephew, James, discussing the unfair treatment of black people by white people and also talking about how the circumstances that his nephew had been born into would limit his opportunities due largely to the fact that he was black. The second essay that makes up the majority of the book focuses on religion and the way that it affects race.
Both of these essays examine many different aspect of prejudice and unfair treatment of black people and the still prominent repercussions of the many cruel years of slavery even though at the time the work was written it had been abolished for over 100 years. James Baldwin did not stand for the same social and political integration that Dr. Martin Luther King did. James Baldwin did not believe that black people should try to be anything like white people because they were too caught up in the past, and until the white people moved past the history it would be hard to integrate into the same society.
Dr. Martin Luther King and James Baldwin were both very influential figures in the 1900’s for the African American community with different views on integration. Dr. King is best known and remembered for the speech that he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial title “I Have A Dream.” (Foner, 976) This speech focused on the change that needed to happen within society in regards to the way that black people were treated. He states in his speech “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
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A few other that Dr. King says he “dreams” of in this speech is that the black and the white man being able to sit and fellowship with one another, he dreams that his children will be able to be judged by their character and not the color of their skin, and “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” Dr. King believes that the black and the white communities can be integrated peacefully and and believes that one day a person will not be looked at or judged by the color of their skin, but “by the content of their character (https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/i-have-dream-address-delivered-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom.) Dr. King seems to see integration as a “dream” that all men will be equal and everyone will accept one another for who they are, despite the color of their skin.
Dr. King also seems to have a very obvious religious reasoning behind his statements. In his speech he refers to religion and God as ways that integration can be achieved. He states “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” While Baldwin does speak about religion in his work very heavily as well, considering a big portion of his book is based upon how religion plays a part in race, he does not necessarily focus on religion as a solution to unfair and unjust treatment and a way that integration can be achieved in the same way that Dr. Martin Luther King does in his “I Have A Dream” speech (https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/i-have-dream-address-delivered-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom.)
James Baldwin explain integration as to “force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it” (Baldwin, 10.) Unlike Dr. King, Baldwin sees integration as the black people accepting the white people. Baldwin explains this with the quote “Please try to be clear, dear James, through the storm which raged about your youthful head today, about the reality which lies behind the words acceptance and integration. There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatsoever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them” (Baldwin, 8) Baldwin believes that white people will not accept them because they are “still trapped in a history which they do not understand” (Baldwin, 8.)
The history in which the white people are trapped is the belief that white people are superior to black people, and Baldwin thinks that until this issue is solved integration will not be possible because of all the issues with this in white society. Baldwin even used the statement “Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?” (Baldwin, ) to express the issues that white people had in their society. Baldwin is very aware that in order for black men to be free and live the lives that they deserve to live with the opportunities they deserve to have white people must understand what they are doing and let go of the past history that should no longer be an issue. Baldwin closes the letter to his nephew with the powerful statement “We can not be free until they are free” (Baldwin, 10) which wraps up all the points he made in the letter and the point he was trying to get across perfectly.
Dr. Martin Luther King and James Baldwin both had extremely well thought reasoning behind the beliefs that they had in regards to integration during the early and mid 1900’s. While they both wanted the same thing, which is freedom, equality, and fair treatment and opportunities, for black people they had different ideas and ways of accomplishing that. James Baldwin and Dr. King did not hold the same beliefs of socially and political integration. Dr. King believed that integration would be accomplished by white and black people accepting each other and working together while James Baldwin believed that the black people would have to accept the white people and “with love, force our brothers to see themselves as they are” (Baldwin, 10) and “a history they do not understand” (Baldwin, 8) and in order for integration to be truly and fully accomplished that white people had to free themselves from this which they were trapped due to a lack of understanding, and then they would both be truly free (Baldwin, 8-10)
