James Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924 the oldest of nine children. This period of time between the 1920's and 1930's would come to be referred to as "The Harlem Renaissance" or "The New Negro Movement". This explosion of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, politics and literature would be due to the large migration of the African American population fleeing the abhorrent, racist conditions of the Jim Crow and Ku Klux Klan infested South. Under these conditions Baldwin would grow and flourish into my favourite writer. My belief remains that a writer must demonstrate a deep empathy through their brilliant gift of crafting words. Personally, I also believe that no other writer has been able to do so at the level of James Baldwin. Much like another favourite of mine, John Steinbeck, Baldwin is very emphatic with his selection of words. I find both authors brilliance is in striking the perfect balance of short phrasing and layered emotive ideas in order to express the feeling of what it feels like to be another human being. Baldwin's specificity lies in the ability to describe what it means to be a Black man in America and perhaps much more masterfully, what it means to be the White man persecuting him.

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James Baldwin grew up in Harlem after his mother Berdis would move from Maryland seeking better job opportunities in the industrious North. The identity of Baldwin's father would remain a mystery. It was in Harlem that Baldwin's mother would meet the man to fill the role of Baldwin's stepfather, David. David was a preacher from New Orleans, he is fictionalised in James' later work 'Go Tell It On The Mountain'. David would be characterised to have a large influence over James becoming a preacher himself when he was just a young boy. In the same book Baldwin would go on to deeply investigate the many religious contradictions of his father and his ruthless rule over the Baldwin families haunted household. Baldwin would grow up fearing his fathers overbearing presence and carry the same sentiments toward an omnipotent all knowing God he had learned so much about. His relationship with both his father and God would become twisted and strained beyond the braking point of the caring parental figure. A young Baldwin would seek out the works of Dickens and write his own school plays to find solace and respite from this oppressing family dynamic. Life would go on this way until the exterior burdens of the outside world would weigh down on him along with his family troubles. Baldwin would face the ugly rearing face of racism, found in the attitude of early 20th century America. At age 24 as a gay black man, he would come face to face with the discrimination that would trouble him for the rest of his life. So he did the only thing he felt he could do, run away. In 1948 he fled to France, falling in love with the city of Paris. He moved with $40 in his pocket and the clothes on his back in search of a place that would accept him for who he was. In Paris it seemed that he was able to gain a perspective and freedom of expression that wasn't available to him in his home country. He would go on to publish a number of novels and essays, these were heavily focused on the question of race in America with more of a foreign and holistic perspective of the problem. Baldwin himself, felt that moving away allowed him to develop a technique and style as a great American writer. He would comment on this later in his writing, "I wanted to prevent myself from becoming merely a negro or, even, a Negro writer... Still, the breakthrough is important, and the point is that an American writer in order to achieve it, very often has to leave his own country". The discovery of what it means to be American. Baldwin had a voice as a writer that would cut through any ambiguity and dissect the matter directly, no matter what he decided to write about. He had a way of stringing the reader along through his own worldview and specific perspective when discussing very dense and complicated topics. The reader would leave with a complete understanding of the ins and outs of Baldwin's ideas. Due to this ability, Baldwin specialised in feeling and conveying otherworldly empathy. it is the development and utilisation of this ability that has Baldwin regarded as one of the greatest American writers to exist. The brilliance in displaying the harsh truths at the core of American hearts and putting them on full display unapologetically, uncompromisingly. Being active during the the civil rights era, Baldwin offered a literary humanity to the struggle against oppression and persecution. The very reason he left is home country to begin with. It was during this time that he would grow close with three incredibly impactful friends: Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Medgar Evans. These three were titans in the fight for African American rights, all with their own differing views on the very present problem. Unbeknownst to him, Baldwin would become the most surveilled of the group by a wide margin. He would also have to live on watching as each of them would be assassinated in a relatively quick succession. During this time it seemed Baldwin found the answer to this madness was in the practice of writing.

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My favourite of Baldwins books is 'The Fire Next Time'. Baldwin breaks the book into three sections. The first is a letter to his nephew James he had written on the centenary of the emancipation proclamation. He communicates the importance of history and what his place will be in it to his nephew. He describes the similarity of his young and innocent nephew with Baldwin's own father. He could recognise the same fight and expression of masculinity which was the same in his own father, this need  to mask the hurt with bravado in order not to appear soft. Baldwin encourages his nephew to find another way to deal with the pain of being a black man. He urges his nephew to understand the history of who he is. To know that America is a place set up to subjugate black people to pain and oppression. He urges his nephew not to waste time on making white people accept him, he should instead work on accepting them. The idea is incredibly powerful, for Baldwin strikes at the main conflict between the black and white of America. The white population can spend their entire life in pure ignorance of the truth about America, it serves them much better to do so. This lack of understanding in the history their own country and their place in it causes immense pain for themselves and the black people they persecute and subsequently can never understand. In this way racism not only poisons those that it is inflicted upon but also poisons the hearts of the people. Baldwin goes on to argue that the only way to resolve this hurtful relationship is to better understand each other through love and compassion. I love the ideas of Baldwin because at a time when the black and white population were trying desperately to seperate from each other, he was advocating for the country to grow together and heal. During the second section of the book, Baldwin would describe his own experience growing up on the streets of Harlem. He realised that the crooks, pimps and drug dealers that he felt so different from could easily become his own path. This realisation came at a time when he watched a lot of his friends take the same course. He explains the choice of turning to the church as refuge and a place to make sense of the quickly expanding worldview he was developing. Baldwin also explains further the struggle against his father, realising at his young age that they were fighting against each other. His father urged the young Baldwin to quit school and pick up a job to help out at home. Baldwin, with his fiercely held convictions on the value of education refused this proposition. He recognised that every black boy growing up selects a kind of gimmick, and his was to preach at a different church to his father in order to have his own thing that he could work on and was completely his. Baldwin would eventually grow disillusioned with the church in the same way he grew disillusioned with his native country, he could not accept the history of christianity, a religion of spreading the good word at the expense of peoples such as my own the Indigenous of Australia being seen as inferior. I have had a similar disillusionment. Baldwin called for a reform of the church, to understand its history and reshape the way it conducts itself with the knowledge of this painful past. During the third section of the book, Baldwin recounts the time he met the honourable Elijah Mohammad. During this meeting he describes an intense anxiety at meeting one of the most powerful black men in America, at the helm of on of the biggest militant groups, the Nation of Islam. Following this meeting with the incredibly organised and pro segregationist movement Baldwin states his firm belief that dominance of any race of the other is morally unjust. He believes that only through addressing the past, treating each other with compassion and love, can the country of America heal.

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My own relationship with Baldwins work continues to grow and evolve as I get older and become more familiar with the core dynamics of the world and society in general. I charge him as being the single most influential writer in my life time and he was born a century ago. He teaches lessons that follow you on your own individual path but also reflects upon the world in a very raw and human way. Through this distinct ability, Baldwin has taught me to employ a true human empathy toward all. This is a philosophy in life that is hard to execute, not based on a higher power or personal gain but for the purpose of compassion and allowing people their own dignity. Where Baldwin makes this a key point is in relation to his own struggles and subjugation under the weight of American history. Under this oppressive system Baldwin urges his people to understand the oppressor and in his writing helps the oppressor understand themselves. Baldwin understanding those that hurt him actively, was able to recognise not only the entirety of his people's history in America but where everyone is going. He warns America about it's stark future if unable to heal from these wounds, taking stock of the situation and rationally explaining what will be reaped with the seeds of racism. Instead of becoming bitter and holding a grudge, which would only damage Baldwin's spirit, he prompted people to use fairness, forgiveness and healing for the nation. Baldwin also provides an experience that the best of writers do, he helps me to feel less lonely in the world. He was able to grasp what is deeply troubling about ignorant people. Proprietors of this ignorance are unfortunately unreceptive to this message, instead Baldwin is able to shift and comfort the victims, calling for the very same understanding he demonstrates. Baldwin was able to capture this messaging at the exact boiling point of segregationist America. His legacy exists as record of important ideas in a time of crisis. These ideas are still just as useful and important today. Reading Baldwin gives me a sense of progression in certain aspects of society but also a sense of innate prejudice and doom. I often wonder what he would make of the situation today. Would he be disheartened by the severe lack of progress in human dignity? Where would he fit with the intellectuals of today? We would he fall on the gaping political divide we face? Would he be disheartened by the lack of compassion, empathy and humanity? Baldwin was born a century ago and continues to endure as a bright and impactful legacy. The world at this point seems to miss him and his words more than ever. These figures seem to come and go like any human in crucial points of history, however their words go to live on forever.

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James Baldwin remains one of my biggest heroes. A figure who stood for what he fiercely believed was right. He approached art and life in general with a moral sensibility that was unmatched. He provided and empathetic approach to struggle and what it means to approach the mass struggle of humanity with compassion. These are strongly Christian coded ideals, however when put in practice our lives become much more meaningful through the strength of deep human connection. He was a voice of a generation that has sadly come to pass. A selflessness built on challenging his societies immediate injustices through written word. This is a quality in our modern times that I believe is severely lacking. Baldwin had an informed voice that would cut through political division, the influence of financial means and the bias of oppression and discrimination. We need his voice now more than ever. The earnest, honest and empathy of literary brilliance. He is the man that remains as the greatest writer personally, and it will take an enormous amount to knock him off of that pedestal.