Reflections on #Ferguson: Baldwin’s “The American Dream and the American Negro”

Today, in the wake of the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for killing unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, the HBW Blog turns, as so many have done, to the words of the prophet James Baldwin:  “It comes as a great shock to discover that the country which is your birthplace…has not, in its whole system of reality, evolved any place for […]

LGBT History Month: Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin

[by Meredith Wiggins] In honor of LGBT History Month, the HBW Blog is featuring posts on foundational queer texts by African American authors.  Today, we discuss James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956).   After the triumphant publication of his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, in 1953, James Baldwin found himself facing a new dilemma in his still-young life as a writer.  “I realized […]