Baldwin, James (1924-1987), U.S. Writer

A leader in the black civil rights movement, James Baldwin was also a strong supporter of gay rights, although The New York Times and The Washington Post scarcely mentioned his homosexuality in their obituaries of him. After an unhappy childhood in Harlem, Baldwin left New York in 1948 for France, where he spent much of his adult life. A prolific writer, Baldwin left behind a collection of works impressive both for their number and their quality. These include Go Tell On The Mountain, Giovanni's Room, Another Country, and the controversial The Fire Next Time. Baldwin was primarily concerned with American society's need to discard many of its myths. He felt that Americans were "still trapped in a history they do not understand," and that they needed to break out of their false view of reality. The myth of white superiority was in Baldwin's mind the most important, and most destructive, of the many myths which informed American culture, and he saw it as being closely related to the deep-seated homophobia prevalent in America.