0:00:07.244,0:00:09.364 Over the course of the 1960s, 0:00:09.366,0:00:13.143 the FBI amassed almost [br]two thousand documents 0:00:13.143,0:00:17.246 in an investigation into one [br]of America’s most celebrated minds. 0:00:17.246,0:00:21.321 The subject of this inquiry [br]was a writer named James Baldwin. 0:00:21.321,0:00:22.481 At the time, 0:00:22.487,0:00:25.427 the FBI investigated many [br]artists and thinkers, 0:00:25.427,0:00:29.186 but most of their files were a [br]fraction the size of Baldwin’s. 0:00:29.186,0:00:31.536 During the years when the FBI hounded him, 0:00:31.536,0:00:35.350 he became one of the best-selling[br]black authors in the world. 0:00:35.350,0:00:38.913 So what made James Baldwin loom [br]so large in the imaginations 0:00:38.913,0:00:42.105 of both the public and the authorities? 0:00:42.105,0:00:44.022 Born in Harlem in 1924, 0:00:44.022,0:00:46.344 he was the oldest of nine children. 0:00:46.344,0:00:49.609 At age fourteen,[br]he began to work as a preacher. 0:00:49.609,0:00:53.093 By delivering sermons,[br]he developed his voice as a writer, 0:00:53.093,0:00:55.462 but also grew conflicted about the Church’s stance 0:00:55.462,0:00:59.010 on racial inequality and homosexuality. 0:00:59.010,0:00:59.971 After high school, 0:00:59.971,0:01:04.236 he began writing novels and essays[br]while taking a series of odd jobs. 0:01:04.236,0:01:06.605 But the issues that had driven him [br]away from the Church 0:01:06.605,0:01:09.860 were still inescapable in his daily life. 0:01:09.860,0:01:12.674 Constantly confronted with racism [br]and homophobia, 0:01:12.674,0:01:16.730 he was angry and disillusioned, [br]and yearned for a less restricted life. 0:01:16.730,0:01:20.085 So in 1948, [br]at the age of 24, 0:01:20.085,0:01:23.035 he moved to Paris on a writing fellowship. 0:01:23.035,0:01:25.571 From France, he published his first novel, 0:01:25.571,0:01:28.814 "Go Tell it on the Mountain," in 1953. 0:01:28.814,0:01:29.794 Set in Harlem, 0:01:29.794,0:01:34.467 the book explores the Church [br]as a source of both repression and hope. 0:01:34.467,0:01:37.322 It was popular with both black [br]and white readers. 0:01:37.322,0:01:39.235 As he earned acclaim for his fiction, 0:01:39.235,0:01:43.787 Baldwin gathered his thoughts on race, [br]class, culture and exile 0:01:43.787,0:01:48.490 in his 1955 extended essay, [br]"Notes of a Native Son." 0:01:48.490,0:01:49.580 Meanwhile, 0:01:49.580,0:01:52.422 the Civil Rights movement [br]was gaining momentum in America. 0:01:52.422,0:01:56.932 Black Americans were making incremental [br]gains at registering to vote and voting, 0:01:56.932,0:02:01.744 but were still denied basic dignities in [br]schools, on buses, in the work force, 0:02:01.744,0:02:03.834 and in the armed services. 0:02:03.834,0:02:06.751 Though he lived primarily in France [br]for the rest of his life, 0:02:06.751,0:02:09.132 Baldwin was deeply invested in [br]the movement, 0:02:09.132,0:02:12.149 and keenly aware of his [br]country’s unfulfilled promise. 0:02:12.149,0:02:15.075 He had seen family, friends, [br]and neighbors 0:02:15.075,0:02:18.714 spiral into addiction, incarceration[br]and suicide. 0:02:18.714,0:02:21.413 He believed their fates originated [br]from the constraints 0:02:21.413,0:02:23.775 of a segregated society. 0:02:23.775,0:02:25.075 In 1963, 0:02:25.075,0:02:27.669 he published "The Fire Next Time," 0:02:27.669,0:02:29.883 an arresting portrait of racial strife[br] 0:02:29.883,0:02:32.270 in which he held white America [br]accountable, 0:02:32.270,0:02:33.754 but he also went further, 0:02:33.754,0:02:36.721 arguing that racism hurt white people too. 0:02:36.731,0:02:37.821 In his view, 0:02:37.821,0:02:42.048 everyone was inextricably enmeshed [br]in the same social fabric. 0:02:42.048,0:02:43.508 He had long believed that: 0:02:43.508,0:02:47.447 “People are trapped in history [br]and history is trapped in them.” 0:02:47.447,0:02:49.317 Baldwin’s role in the Civil Rights [br]movement 0:02:49.317,0:02:51.347 went beyond observing and reporting. 0:02:51.347,0:02:53.636 He also traveled through the [br]American South 0:02:53.636,0:02:56.613 attending rallies giving lectures [br]of his own. 0:02:56.613,0:02:59.438 He debated both white politicians [br]and black activists, 0:02:59.438,0:03:01.008 including Malcolm X, 0:03:01.008,0:03:04.709 and served as a liaison between black [br]activists and intellectuals 0:03:04.709,0:03:07.567 and white establishment leaders [br]like Robert Kennedy. 0:03:07.567,0:03:09.280 Because of Baldwin’s unique ability 0:03:09.280,0:03:11.747 to articulate the causes [br]of social turbulence 0:03:11.747,0:03:14.627 in a way that white audiences [br]were willing to hear, 0:03:14.627,0:03:18.736 Kennedy and others tended to see [br]him as an ambassador for black Americans 0:03:18.736,0:03:20.906 — a label Baldwin rejected. 0:03:20.906,0:03:22.142 And at the same time, 0:03:22.142,0:03:25.852 his faculty with words led the [br]FBI to view him as a threat. 0:03:25.852,0:03:27.608 Even within the Civil Rights movement, 0:03:27.608,0:03:29.978 Baldwin could sometimes feel [br]like an outsider 0:03:29.978,0:03:33.044 for his choice to live abroad,[br]as well as his sexuality, 0:03:33.044,0:03:35.126 which he explored openly [br]in his writing 0:03:35.126,0:03:37.897 at a time when homophobia ran rampant. 0:03:37.897,0:03:39.113 Throughout his life, 0:03:39.113,0:03:42.012 Baldwin considered it his role[br]to bear witness. 0:03:42.012,0:03:43.562 Unlike many of his peers, 0:03:43.569,0:03:46.853 he lived to see some of the[br]victories of the Civil Rights movement, 0:03:46.853,0:03:51.333 but the continuing racial inequalities in [br]the United States weighed heavily on him. 0:03:51.333,0:03:53.981 Though he may have felt trapped [br]in his moment in history, 0:03:53.981,0:03:56.775 his words have made generations [br]of people feel known, 0:03:56.775,0:03:59.475 while guiding them toward a more [br]nuanced understanding 0:03:59.475,0:04:02.524 of society’s most complex issues.