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“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them,” is on a long list of quotes from the great James Baldwin of which all humanity should absorb.
Who was James Baldwin? He was a Black novelist, playwright, essayist, poet and civil rights activist. He was one of those guys I grew up recognizing but couldn’t exactly recall why. One of his novels, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” was adapted into the Academy Award winning movie of the same name in 2018.
I also didn’t remember when Black History Month began, though I should have. I was 8 years old when President Gerald Ford first proclaimed it in 1976. I do remember listening to white people complain about it when I was a younger person, before everyone I knew actually knew better than to complain to me about it. Don’t bother me with that.
If any month of the year needed help with a lack of purpose, February certainly was it. History.com gave me the background on when Black History Month started in its current form, and I immediately took issue with one of the first sentences. President Ford said in that first year that its purpose was to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often-neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Oh, sure, we should always make time to honor the accomplishments of the many who deserve it. But Black History Month serves a more valuable purpose now. It actually is something white Americans need more than anyone else. Why? Because white Americans have the most to learn about great Black Americans, like James Baldwin.
My favorite of Baldwin’s lessons: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” I would like to multiply this by a thousand in my description of many people today, most of them white, who seem to be defined by their grievances.
Was he just full of all the usual liberal fodder that everyone was spewing in the heat of the civil rights movement? Well, here’s how Baldwin defined a liberal: “someone who thinks he knows more about your experience than you do.”
As someone who is often despairingly referred to as a lefty, that hits pretty close to home.
In my last class of graduate school last summer, a class titled Public Persuasion, we were treated to watching the famous James Baldwin/William F. Buckley debate held at the University of Cambridge on Feb. 18, 1965. Buckley founded National Review, the magazine that inspired the modern conservative movement. Oh, if Buckley could see where his movement is today.
The debate centered on the question of government-mandated integration in the South. Baldwin won the debate in convincing fashion. How could he lose? Maybe part of it was because he was on the right side of the debate. That’s not why my professor wanted us to watch it and analyze it, though. The lesson was about Baldwin’s greatness as a thinker and a speaker.
Baldwin persuaded people with his intellect and talent for delivery on matters of which he was passionate. Our nation needed him then, and the nation should be grateful he was there for us. Not only were his words profoundly valuable in the moment, they are timeless.
As we celebrate Black History Month, go to YouTube and watch this debate. And if you have already seen it, watch it again. I will be happy to join you.•
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Leppert is an author and governmental affairs consultant in Indianapolis. He writes at MichaelLeppert.com. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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