To James Baldwin
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: September 26, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Details
King congratulates Baldwin on the publication of his book Nobody Knows My Name, and thanks him for “the many kind things you said about me and my work” in a 1961 article published in Harper’s Magazine.1 Baldwin replied on 15 November, writing that the appreciation “means more to me than I can say.”
Mr. James Baldwin
c/o Dial Press, Inc.
461 Park Avenue, South
New York 16, New York
Dear James:
Please excuse me for taking the perogative of addressing you by your first name, but I feel just that close to you. I have just finished reading Nobody Knows My Name, and I simply want to thank you for it. This collection of essays and lectures will certainly go down as a classic on the meaning of the social revolution that is taking place in the United States in the area of race relations. It is written with a lucidity of style and a profoundity of thought that inspires any serious reader. Your analysis of the problem is always creative and penetrating. Your honesty and courage in telling the truth to white Americans, even if it hurts, is most impressive.2 I have been tremendously helped by reading the book, and I know that it will serve to broaden my understanding on the whole meaning of our struggle.
I would also like to express a rather belated thanks to you for the article which appeared in HARPER’S magazine. It, too, had a profound impact, and I am sure that as a result of it many people came to an appreciation of the dilemma that I confront as a leader in the civil rights struggle. I can assure you that the many kind things you said about me and my work in the article have been of inestimable value for the continuance of my humble efforts.
I hope you many more successful days as a writer. You are not only a great Negro writer; you are a great writer. In a most creative way you rose up from all of the crippling restrictions that a Negro born in Harlem faces, or anywhere in the United States for that matter, and plunged against a cloud-filled night of oppression new and blazing stars of inspiration. You make all of us proud to be Negroes.
With warm personal regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
1. The anthology, a reflection on race, was written while Baldwin was in Paris. Although pleased with the content of the Harper’s article, “The Dangerous Road Before Martin Luther King,” King considered asking Baldwin about his claim that he had fired Bayard Rustin under pressures from Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. King, however, decided that Rustin should address the matter himself (Rustin to King, 6 February 1961, p. 152 in this volume; and King to Rustin, 6 March 1961). In preparation for the article, Baldwin followed King around Atlanta in order to get a “dim approximation of what it is like to be in your position” (Baldwin to King, 26 May 1960, in Papers 5:460–461).
2. King later recommended Baldwin’s book to a critic to help explain the impact of racism on the oppressed (King to Harold Courlander, 30 October 1961, pp. 315–316 in this volume).
Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954–1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.