November 2, 2011
The Fire Next Time
by James Baldwin
Presented by Professor and Duke Alumnus,Timothy B. Tyson Ph.D.’94, visiting professor of American Christianity and Southern culture at Duke Divinity School and senior scholar of documentary studies at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies
Discussion Points
- Is The Fire Next Time a period piece? For those of us who are not historians, why would we read it now? Born in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin began to publish books in 1953, starting with his now-classic novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain. Though he wrote one book in the 1980s before his death in 1987, his star seemed to rise and fall with the civil rights movement itself. He published Notes of a Native Son in 1955, in the wake of the Brown v. Board decision. His next two collections of essays, Nobody Knows My Name, sold a million copies in 1961, and the book we are discussing, The Fire Next Time, sold well over a million and landed the author on the cover of Time magazine and appeared to establish him as a major voice of the African American liberation struggle.
- Is this a memoir in the contemporary sense? We live in the Age of Memoir—or at least a time when self-exposure seems routine, if not mandatory. The Fire Next Time is written in first-person and certainly autobiographical.
- What is the role of religion in this book and in Baldwin’s various angles of vision on the world? James Baldwin was a preacher’s son. His adoptive father was a stern Pentecostal preacher. The Fire Next Time tells of Baldwin’s career as a teenaged evangelist and his subsequent departure from the church, “leaving the church to preach the gospel,” as he later put it.
- What holds these disparate narratives together? How does the story of Baldwin’s struggles with his Pentecostal preacher father relate to his episode with Elijah Muhammad? This book begins with a “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation.” It then moves to Baldwin’s upbringing in Harlem and finally to Baldwin’s 1961 visit to Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam.
- Isn’t a book about race relations—or at Baldwin might say, “the Negro problem”-- published in 1963 somewhat dated in its racial sensibilities? Is this book still relevant? As “race” evolves in its meaning, isn’t Baldwin’s subject matter likely to fade in its power over us and hence this book loses its hold on our moral and literary imagination? Certainly The Fire Next Time is widely regarded as one of the classic American works on the still-simmering subject of race. Today it has become almost a commonplace, at least in the academy and to some extent in the larger culture, to speak of race as “socially constructed,” a category that has no real meaning in itself. Some of us even regard the United States as “post-racial.”
Questions and comments from our readers:
-
From Joanne: This book is not a period piece and is relevant today. We gain a greater understanding of how it felt to be black in the 60’s. The description of the blacks’ deplorable treatment in WWII is shocking. The German POW’s were treated with more humanity and dignity than were the blacks although the blacks still felt freer in Europe. We might think of the blacks struggling at that time for equality. Instead, Baldwin emphasized rejection of the white characterization of blacks. He also stressed the perspective that blacks in America had about the country’s reality that informed them of attributes that the majority did not see. On page 25, it is stated that “Negroes are taught to despise themselves. The world is white and they are black. White people hold the power and they are superior to blacks. The future you faced was because you were black and for no other reason”. We need this understanding to realize why the later demonstrations and actions were taken by the blacks.
-
From Joanne: A memoir is described as “A record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal life and experiences.” At first, one would think that The Fire Next Time is a memoir. Upon further reflection, one might find that, although the book is autobiographical, it serves a greater purpose than just being a memoir. Baldwin is trying to express the feelings of others, the blacks and whites, and how things appeared and how they really were for the two races. He is setting the stage for “love” as a means of equalizing the two races. The book encompasses more than Baldwin’s autobiography.
-
From Bill: Baldwin grew up in Harlem at a time when for many black men across America, one way to survive was to immerse themselves in sports, music, or religion. Certainly, there were many other areas of accomplishment, but given society’s restrictions, Baldwin was attracted to religion as his vehicle to define himself professionally and socially. It also gave him an opportunity to understand language as a means of lyrical, allegorical, and metaphorical expression - and persuasion. In his writing, he used his religious background as a means of framing the civil rights issue as a moral imperative and allowed him to affiliate with King in a sincere and empathetic manner. Religion was an essential component in shaping his world view and in honing his skill as a compelling master of words.
-
From Joanne: In the narrative to his nephew, Baldwin is setting the stage for the rest of his book. He writes to his nephew, “You were born where you were born (ghetto) and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason.” “The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever.” “There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you.” “You must accept them.” “You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope.” In Baldwin’s struggles with his father, he wanted to best his father as a preacher. By his becoming a preacher, he broke his father’s hold over him and gained some privacy. One day he brought his Jewish friend to his house. His father asked, “Is he a Christian?’ which meant, “Is he saved?” James stated, “No, he is Jewish.” His father slammed his son’s face with his hand. The hatred and fear that James had lost while becoming a preacher returned. “All the sermons, tears, repentance, and rejoicing had changed nothing.” James told his father “He’s a better Christian than you are” and walked out of the house. This incident set the stage for James’ ability to stand up to others in the future. He also turned away from his father’s religious philosophy or his meaning of Christianity. Baldwin visited Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. He found how Elijah’s followers chanted, “Yes, that’s right,” which is a similar response to Pentecostal congregations. Elijah’s power came from singlemindedness; he meant what he said. He felt black men needed to accept the true faith and become Islam. Baldwin states, “I felt I was back in my father’s house and I told Elijah that I did not care if white and black people married, that I had many white friends. This fact parallels his Jewish classmate’s friendship. Baldwin said to himself, “I love a few people and they love me and some of them are white, and isn’t love more important than color?” Once again, he is standing up to an authority figure with his opposite stance. He is not afraid to express his contrary believes. The narratives are held together by the theme of love.
-
From Bill: Race is still relevant to the extent that demographically blacks are underrepresented in positions of leadership in corporations, foundations, universities, museums and cultural institutions; and overrepresented in prisons, low health indices, and mortality rates. The disparity of wealth, most of which for black families has been wiped out in the last four years, is a serious distinction from white families. The facts do not bear out that we are yet in a race neutral world - yet. Nonetheless, there are stellar examples of achievements by blacks over the last two generations, which clearly reflect improvements since Baldwin's writing. His work will always be an important chronicle of a critical time in US history denoting a time where the prospect of harmonious existence between the races was still in question. He was a humanizing voice for a remarkable moment in history and for that alone, his work will have lasting significance.
- From George (Duke Class of 1984): Thanks for including this on the reading list. I had not read it before, and it was certainly a powerful view of the state of race relations in the US in the mid-60’s. Baldwin makes such a strong case for how the “relatively conscious” white and blacks can work together to end our nation’s “racial nightmare”, so I was saddened to see that his life ended from what was termed in the intro to my version of the book “his home” in France in 1987. When did he move from the US, and what were the circumstances and/or rationale behind his move?