BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) — “Having reactions symptomatic of hysteria barely controlled; always on the edge of tears; can’t sleep; headaches–have a touch of the flu or something.”
Writing from his room at the A.G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham on October 18, 1957, James Baldwin described how his trip through the South had been going the last few weeks. Baldwin, then 33, had never spent any time in the South, but with the desegregation of Montgomery’s buses, as well as the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the young writer went out to see what he could in the hotbed of the civil rights movement in the South.
Friday marks what would’ve been the esteemed writer and public intellectual ’s 100th birthday. Although he spent most of his working life living outside the United States–especially in France during his final years–Baldwin’s writings were wholly of Black American experience in America, reflections in books like “Notes of a Native Son” and “The Fire Next Time” that continue to inspire millions today.