• Archive: 1963

(Untitled) Speech

Speech by James Baldwin (1963) Transcribed from: freedomarchives.org/Braden%20Audio.Images/BaldwinWeb.mp3 The beginnings of this country have nothing whatever to do with the myths we have created about it. The country did not come about because a handful of people in Europe said, “I want to be free” and promptly built a boat or raft and crossed the

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time