To Interviews with James Baldwin
by Robert Reid-Pharr, Editor
I always felt that when I was talking publicly, I was talking mainly to the children, to the young, which is as to the future, and I was talking about people’s souls; I was never really talking about simply political action, because I am not a political activist.
—from James Baldwin’s interview with John Hall, Transition Magazine 41, 1972
There is a funny thing about movements. They never really seem to be about us. Abandoning the comfort of home, leaving behind harried partners and pouting children, we gather in our halls and offices, hands full of flyers, hearts full of hope. And sometimes on extraordinary days when victory seems either impossible or just at hand, we turn toward the brightest and most talented among us, looking to them for knowledge and wisdom that will allow our many peoples to carry on just a bit further…
