James Baldwin

This series from May 13, 1963, shot by Jeff Goldwater, shows novelist, essayist and activist, James Baldwin speaking at a Los Angeles integration rally sponsored by the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) at the Second Baptist church near Central Avenue. Baldwin spoke to the 2,300 person audience, addressing desegregation, the recent campaign in Birmingham, violence and  accountability. He stated, “To justify the crimes committed against the negro the white man decided that the negro wasn’t a man, and the negro wasn’t a man then no crime was committed. That’s the basis of the trouble today. The white man has set up illusions that threaten to destroy his grasp on reality, that is to say, his moral values.”

 

 

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