James Baldwin

James Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist from the 1950s through the 1980s. Baldwin is the primary subject of Begin Again. Throughout the text, Glaude examines Baldwin's life and writing in order to understand his lessons for today's American people.

As a young man and artist, Baldwin embraced messages of love. He believed it was possible to lead white Americans into awareness. He saw it as black Americans responsibility to save white Americans via a new morality. However, Baldwin receive a lot of criticism for this stance. When his ideas became increasingly revolutionary, Baldwin was attacked even more. Glaude theorizes that Baldwin's queerness was part of the reason critics, activists, and reports criticized him so often. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. seemed unsettled by Baldwin's sexuality. Yet King and Baldwin did share a profound connection. So Baldwin was particularly disturbed after King's...