Young James Baldwin began attending Public School 24 in Harlem at five years old, where his teachers quickly noted his intelligence. Throughout his school years, Baldwin remained well-supported by teachers and mentors that noticed his potential and did their best to nurture it. In 1941, he graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx.
Young Adulthood
To help support his family, Baldwin began to work immediately following his graduation. His mother and stepfather had an additional eight children, and the health of David Baldwin, who was considerably older than his wife, was beginning to decline. James Baldwin held various jobs, including constructing a United States Army depot, laying military train tracks in New Jersey, and later working at a restaurant in Greenwich Village.
Baldwin had begun to notice his attraction to men during high school and was able to further explore his sexuality in the more liberal environment of Greenwich Village. He bussed tables at Calypso Restaurant, a famously de-segregated Caribbean restaurant and community gathering place frequented by various artists, musicians, and intellectuals.
In 1945, Baldwin met Richard Wright, one of the most influential African American writers of the time. Baldwin gave Wright the manuscript of what would become his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and Wright was sufficiently impressed to recommend the aspiring Baldwin for a fellowship.
In 1948, James Baldwin was twenty-four years old and disillusioned with American racism. With forty dollars in his pocket, Baldwin left the United States for Paris, where he would live for the next nine years.
Paris and Literary Career
In Paris, James Baldwin lived with friends or stayed in hotels; he was poor for the duration of his stay, but he appeared to be content. He wrote numerous essays, including "The Negro in Paris" and "Equal in Paris," reflecting on his experience in France as a Black man and how it differed from his experience in the United States.
Post-war France was a central hub for writers, artists, and intellectuals, and Baldwin was quickly absorbed into Paris' Left Bank culture. He became acquainted with figures such as Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Truman Capote, and his work was published in various magazines and anthologies. Most importantly, Baldwin could escape the racism he experienced in the United States. He was able to view from afar the racial conflicts at the heart of American society, a perspective that would influence his later writings and involvement in the civil rights movement.
Baldwin's published essays from his years in Paris also included two significant critiques of fellow American author Richard Wright, "Everybody's Protest Novel" (1949) and "Many Thousands Gone" (1951).
Baldwin also wrote and published some of his best-known works in Paris. His first novel, the semi-autobiographical Go Tell It on the Mountain that had been in progress for close to ten years, was published in 1953. The controversial Giovanni's Room (1956) and the essay collection Notes of A Native Son (1955) were also published during Baldwin's time in Paris.
Return to the United States and Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement
In 1957, James Baldwin returned to the United States. The Partisan Review had invited him to cover the desegregation of schools in the Southern states, taking the writer to states like North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
James Baldwin came to be known as one of the most important voices of the civil rights movement. His essays eloquently unpacked issues of race, class, and identity in the United States, and his books Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961) and The Fire Next Time (1963) both sold more than a million copies.
He also became involved with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and traveled the country, giving lectures at universities on the topic of racial inequality.
In 1963, at the height of the civil rights movement, Baldwin was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
Explanations 
Exams 
Magazine 
