The great American author and civil rights activist’s works offered prophetic warnings, generosity of spirit and clarity like no other when it came to race relations
2 August 2024 marks the centenary of James Baldwin’s birth, a good time for a renewed appreciation and celebration of this great American author and civil rights activist. From his early teenage years as a Pentecostal preacher, he possessed precocious oratorical skills that powerfully moved an audience in call and response, and when as a young man he left the pulpit, he carried his gifts with him, believing that religion would not suffice to create the needed change in race relations, but that his writing could.
***
If we do not now dare everything, the fulfilment of that prophecy, recreated from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!
Continue reading...
0 Comments