12 books to help you fight the system

James Baldwin (Image Credit: Ted Thai)

3. Notes of a Native Son

James Baldwin wrote mightily about the issues of race that faced mid-century Americans. He was also an accomplished novelist, poet, playwright, and critic. He was unapologetically gay in an unabashedly homophobic nation and time.

Baldwin eventually left America for France, disillusioned by the limitations American society set upon him for having black skin. He wanted, instead to escape the despair that seemed to overcome so many other black men in his community, and to become something other than, in his words, “merely a Negro; or, even, merely a Negro writer.”

If you’ve heard of Baldwin, then you’ve likely seen his one of his most well-known pieces, Notes of a Native Son (1955). This collection of essays was followed by others, including The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). He’s also well known for his fiction work, including Giovanni’s Room (1956), now considered to be a classic of LGBTQ literature.

While I encourage you to read as much of Baldwin’s writing as you can, you may as well start with his first book of essays. It’s rightfully considered a classic of nonfiction and social critique. Notes of a Native Son interweaves this critique with Baldwin’s own life, following his experiences as a young man in Harlem and, later, as an expatriate in France and Sweden.Though it was published over fifty years ago, it remains powerfully relevant to today’s struggles with race, class, and sexuality.