Now, I am a massive fan of all documentaries, and will gladly watch one on canal trips to the history of African music and into this mix in recent years the ‘feature doc.’ idea has been a growing genre.

However, I have never grown tired of anything to do with the 1960s in particular and my interest in the decade takes in all facets of that turbulent, triumphant and troubled ten years.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Taking in all of three of those subjects is the recent documentary ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ which is based on an unfinished manuscript by the African American writer and social commentator James Baldwin. The writing and therefore the documentary, look deep into the heart of racism in the US and in particular at the deaths in the late 60s of civil rights activist Medgar Evans, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King and the activist on many socio political fronts Malcolm X.

All three were close friends of Baldwin and in the text that inspired the film, ‘Remember This House’ he recalls his observations of their lives and then the impact of their deaths on him and America at large.

It is an uncomfortable watch at times, but none the less fascinating for that. The conclusion of the film, with the recent on-going ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests, is that the US has still a long way to go with this problem.

So what of James Baldwin the man?  Over the years, I have seen him pop up on various TV programmes from the 60s and he was nothing if not eloquent and a fascinating speaker. His talk was sharp, angular and often bluntly to the point. He struck me as a complex character and someone who intrigued me, hence the reason for checking out the film in the first place.

Baldwin was born in 1924 in Harlem, New York. As a child, he attended the DeWitt Clinton School in the Bronx and in there; from an early age he displayed a fierce intelligence at odds with his poor upbringing. It is said, that his stepfather was harder on him, than his own biological kids, and as a result, James often felt an outsider within his own family.

Keeping out of harms way, he chose to spend time alone in public libraries soaking up as much learning as he could. He also had, from an early age, an intense desire to write and his first play was performed at school when he was aged just nine. His first written article published when aged just 13.

By his 20s, he had had reviews and essays published in many magazines and he was a familiar face on the New York intellectual scene.

Like many, he had also suffered racist abuse and mistreatment often, by the then New York police from an early age, and this was a pattern repeated over and over again as he found his voice.

Between many odd jobs, Baldwin wrote as much as he could, including short stories, getting them published wherever he could. A friend of his at that time was actor Marlon Brando and the two became close friends for more than two decades.

In 1948, he decided to leave the US and the continuing abuse behind and he moved to Paris. Yes, it was a move powered by a desire to escape the blatant prejudice he faced daily, but it was also a way to address his sexual orientation – he knew he was homosexual from a young age, though he had had relationships with women too – far from home. It wasn’t long before he was soon involved with the carefree social and cultural life of the Left Bank.

Removing himself from the US, enabled him to see more clearly with the distance, just what a mess America was making of its race issue. At the same time, he knew and understood he could never totally escape the problem, wherever he went.

He was away for nearly ten years, before he returned in 1957. He had been monitoring the start of the US civil right struggle and felt the need to return and be part of it. Once on US soil, he travelled to the Deep South to witness the situation first hand and it was then on that trip that he first met Martin Luther King.

A few years later, he would also meet the then attorney general Bobby Kennedy, so found himself central to all going on around him. This brought him to the attention of the FBI and eventually his personal file would contain nearly 2,000 pages of documents.

Although friends, Baldwin’s sexuality eventually became a problem for Dr. King. So much so, that although Baldwin was on the famous  ‘March of Jobs and Freedom’ on Washington in 1963, he was pointedly not invited to speak at the rally.

In his early writing years, he considered himself a novelist and his first book ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain,’ was published in 1953, to favourable reviews. It dealt with his relationship with a domineering father. In time however, his magazine and newspaper essays began to have more impact on the public.

Such as ‘Notes of a Native Son’ from 1955, ‘Nobody Knows My Name’ in 1961 and ‘The Fire Next Time’ from 1963.

Baldwin was now actively involved in the civil rights struggle, attending and indeed organising meetings and marches on a regular basis. Through this, he got to meet and get to know well the main protagonist form all aspects of that movement. He was always wary however of being considered a leader of it. His role, he felt, was as one who would ‘bear witness to the truth’ and then report it.

His writing never held back. He told it as he saw it. Those involved faced attacks, severe beating and occasional death on a daily basis.

He wrote ‘what is ghastly and really almost hopeless in our racial situation now is that the crimes we have committed are so great and so unspeakable that the acceptance of this knowledge would lead, literally, to madness. The human being, then, in order to protect himself, closes his eyes, compulsively repeats his crimes, and enters a spiritual darkness which no one can describe.’

Other causes would also gain his attention. He was also an early opponent of the war in Vietnam, speaking out against it as early as 1963 and in 1968, as it continued, he avowed to not pay tax as a protest.

He also spoke openly against discrimination of homosexuals, well in advance of any known gay liberation movement

All this can be seen as very radical in the US of the very early 1960s.

His his books ‘Giovanni’s Room from 1956, and ‘Another Country’ from 1962, dealt with a homo erotic and bi sexual lifestyle and were slated by both black and white, and as mentioned earlier, from within the civil right activists.

Due to his raised profile as a result of his many essays, he began to appear as a regular face on the TV screens of America, mainly as a guest on early chat shows.

His book from 1972 ‘No Name in the Street’, dealt with, among other subjects, the subsequent assassinations of his three friends – Medger, Malcolm and Martin.

Not long after, his heyday was over, His fame and book sales slipped in the 70s

By then he was back in France where he set up home in the South of France, living in Saint Paul de Vence. There he was visited by the likes of Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, all paying homage.

He spoke French fluently and continued to write, what he wanted to write. The French honoured him with the Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1986 and he died in France on December 1st 1987 from stomach cancer. He was buried in Hartsdale, New York City.

Ever the outsider, James Baldwin was 63 years old

The Mumper of SE5