James Baldwin's last speech

In 1987, James Baldwin gave his last speech and interview at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Gibbs has obtained a taped copy of that speech and makes it available to our readers. James Arthur Baldwin was born in 1924, the first of nine children to a minister father and a working mother. He became a child minister in 1938 and preached for three years in Holiness Churches.

He graduated from high school but never attended college. Although never attending college, he was a child prodigy and started writing in 1942.

He was one of the most eloquent speakers and brilliant minds to rise during the Civil Rights Movement. He wrote many novels, plays, essays, and some poems.

Later in his life he moved to France and lived there the remainder of his life, until he died of stomach cancer in December 1987. But earlier in that year, he came back to the USA and gave the speech below.

The Speech--National Press Club