fbpx

KidsKonnect

James Baldwin Facts & Worksheets

James Baldwin was an African-American author who was known for his literary works related to race issues in America

Search for Worksheets

Worksheets /People /James Baldwin Facts & Worksheets

Premium
Not ready to purchase a subscription? Click to download the free sample version   Download sample

James Baldwin was an African-American author who was known for his literary works related to race issues in America.

See the fact file below for more information on James Baldwin or alternatively, you can download our 22-page James Baldwin worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924 in Harlem, New York. 
  • He was raised by his mother, Emma Berdis Jones, and his step-father, David Baldwin, a Baptist minister.
  • Being the eldest of nine children, he took care of his siblings.
  • At a young age, he served as a Youth Minister at the Pentecostal Church in the Fireside Pentecostal Assembly. There, he learned to love reading and writing. Upon reaching high school, Baldwin showed potential as a great author.
  • Baldwin attended Frederick Douglass Junior High School, where he met his mentor, Countee Cullen, a Harlem Renaissance poet, who became his role model.
  • As a teenager, he suffered discrimination after people learned of his homosexuality. In mid-century America, this was not yet accepted.
  • At DeWitt Clinton High School, Baldwin edited the school literary magazine Magpie and was a member of the literary club.
  • In 1942, he witnessed his father’s death in the midst of the Harlem Race Riot of 1943.
  • The loss of his father forced James Baldwin to become the father figure for his 8 siblings. 
  • He decided to work minimum paying jobs during the day and play guitar in Greenwich Village cafes in the evenings. 
  • In between, Baldwin continued writing in the hope of someday fulfilling his dream to become a great writer.

WRITING CAREER

  • In 1944, Baldwin saw an opportunity to rekindle his goal when he met Richard Wright, a famous African-American male writer of the time. 
  • The latter becomes his mentor. Baldwin valued their intellectual exchanges and admired Wright’s strong views on the American race.
  • Influenced by his early experience in the church, his writings reflected themes, symbols, and allusions from the bible. Wright then aided Baldwin in obtaining a fellowship to write his first novel to help cover his expenses.
  • He eventually published essays and short stories in national publications such as The Nation, Partisan Review, and Commentary.
  • Baldwin left the United States in 1948 to live in Paris, France because he couldn’t stand the daily racial and sexual discrimination he faced.
  • However, while in France, Baldwin and Wright began to argue about how they approached race in their writing.
  • His critique of Wright’s “protest art” in the novel Native Son (1940) led to a dispute and eventually to their friendship’s downfall.
  • His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, published in 1953, was later listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005.
  • Some of his other novels include:
    • Little Man, Little Man (1976) – About a boy named TJ who grew up in Harlem and became a “little man” as he discovered the realities of the adult world.
    • The Amen Corner (1954) – A story showing the importance of religion and the effects of poverty on one African American family.
    • The Fire Next Time (1963) – An essay collection featuring two letters as a call to end racism 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
    • If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) – A story about Tish and Fonny. When Fonny was accused of a crime and imprisoned, their families set out to prove his innocence.
    • Others: I Am Not Your Negro, Nobody Knows My Name, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone, No Name in the Street, Just Above My Head, etc.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM

  • Besides his novels, Baldwin is also well-known for his essays and journalism recounting the experiences and struggles of Black people after World War II, during the civil rights era through Black Power, and into the 1980s and the movement’s decline.
  • By the early 1970s, he had become a militant socialist active in calling out racism in America.
  • He went on speaking tours and debates on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality.
  • He was also active in the American Civil Rights movement and actively joined and appeared at the Civil Rights March. 

LEGACY

  • James Baldwin was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and died on December 1, 1987 (aged 63). 
  • He was working on an unreleased manuscript entitled Remember This House, a memoir about civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • In his honor, Baldwin Court, a street in San Francisco’s neighborhood, is named after him.
  • Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, established the James Baldwin Scholars program in 1992.
  • Baldwin’s work helped raise public awareness of racial and sexual oppression. The written portrayal of his personal experiences challenged the nation to uphold the values it promised on equality and justice.
  • He believed sexuality was fluid and should not be divided into strict categories, an idea that was hardly acceptable during his time.
  • In recognition to his activism, Baldwin was an honoree of the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame honoring LGBTQ people who have “made significant contributions in their fields”.

James Baldwin Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about James Baldwin across 22 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching about James Baldwin who was an African-American author known for his literary works related to race issues in America.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • James Baldwin Facts
  • James Baldwin
  • Baldwin’s Poetry
  • Writing a Poem
  • Paperback Cover
  • Story in Pictures
  • Facing Racism
  • Points of View
  • Message for James
  • Say It Right
  • Reaching a Goal

Link/cite this page

If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.

Link will appear as James Baldwin Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, April 7, 2022

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

Related Resources