James Baldwin BY: SARA TESS

Early Life  Born August 2 nd, 1924 in Harlem, New York  He was a writer and playwright  He developed a devotion for reading at a young age  He worked on his high school’s magazine publishing many poems, short stories and plays  Once he graduated high school, he put college on hold to support his family.  He would pick up any kind of work he could find.  During this time he was confronted with discrimination, such as being turned away from many different establishments.

Early Life  Struggles with poverty, the humiliation of police brutality, the strangling religious indoctrination, and the estrangement from his stepfather  Authoritarian, preacher, sinner  He would escape from his stepfather by reading  Read majority of the books in both libraries in Harlem  James would write in an “attempt to be loved.”

Writing  Everybody’s Protest Novel  Go Tell It on the Mountain  Notes of a Native Son  Giovanni’s Room – 1956  Nobody Knows My Name – 1961  Another Country  The Frist Next Time  Going to Meet the Man

Going to Meet The Man  Main character, Jesse, is a deputy sheriff in a small town.  He has trouble sleeping so he talks to his half asleep wife, Grace, about an incident that he can’t get out of his mind.  He talks about how the black people won’t stop singing in front of the court house  He doesn’t mention who Big Jim C is but he talks about how he beat and whipped the black man who was the leader of the group of people singing outside the court house.

Going to Meet the Man  Jesse recalls a time beating a young boy because he wouldn’t stop singing.  He treated him like a bull, kicking him around until the boy couldn’t get back up.  The boy mentions Old Julia to Jesse “white man” asking if he remembers her. Old Julia Blossom was the boys grandmother.  The boy tells Jesse that the kids won’t stop singing until they call the women by their right name.  Jesse finally remembers that he worked with Old Julia at the mail office.

Going to Meet the Man  Jesse use to have a black friend named Otis that he used to wrestle with.  One day Otis disappeared and although Jesse didn’t know exactly where he went, he had a feeling it wasn’t any place good.  Jesse’s dad takes him to the killing and burning of a black man.  Although it scared him at first, he knew that this is what happens to black men that get in trouble with the law.

Contemporary Culture  Nowadays, we don’t do a ceremony of the killing of any black men.  There is more media coverage of black men being shot and killed by police officers.  Black males will receive longer prison and jail sentences than white males. But with the longer sentences, it usually means that they committed a more serious crime.  Going to Meet the Man is based of a very different time than today. Many things described in the novel don’t happen anymore.  Blacks have more rights in today’s culture than they did 50 + years ago.

Quote  We learn from our elders.  We are who we are because of what we are taught from our great grandparents, grandparents, family members, etc.

Work Cited  Biography.com Editors. "James Baldwin Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 11 Dec Web. 09 Oct  Gates, Henry Louis, and Valerie Smith. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Norton, Print.