“I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO”
Author James Baldwin
Leave it to the great writer (and my hero) James Baldwin to force America to look at itself in the mirror – something he did throughout his extraordinary literary career.
Mark your calendars for Thursday, January 11, at 7 p.m., when KERA-TV, in partnership with the Fort Worth Human Relations Unit, will sponsor a special showing of the Oscar-nominated documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro,” based on the book Baldwin never finished about three of his friends and authentic American heroes: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. A reception begins at 6:30 p.m.
Medgar Evers
The special screening will be at Fort Worth Botanical Garden’s Lecture Hall, 3220 Botanic Garden Boulevard. After the showing I will host a discussion with two TCU professors: Dr. Stacie McCormick, an assistant professor in the English Department who specializes in 20th – and 21st-century African American Literature and Literatures of the African Diaspora; and Dr. Max Krochmal, an assistant professor in the History and Geography Department who works at the intersection of modern U.S., African American, Chicano/a-Latino/a, and labor histories –and their present-day ramifications.
Malcom X
Admission to the screening is free, but because seating is limited you will need to register on Eventbrite.
Luckily, I was introduced to Baldwin when I was in the 10th grade at the historic all-black I. M. Terrell High School, by the superb English teacher, Mrs. Reba Hands. She was the kind of teacher who put The New York Times “Best Seller” list on the bulletin board every Monday. Baldwin’s epic essay, “The Fire Next Time,” made that list.
There was no way that I could have imagined then that one day I would produce a series for Public Television with Ossie Davis and Ruby with one show devoted to James – or “Jimmy,” as Ossie and Ruby called him – Baldwin. That was one of the highlights of my long TV career.
Martin Luther King
“I Am Not Your Negro” is powerful on so many levels, and it is able to connect the trials of the 1960s with the events of today. It forces us to ask: “How far have we come?”; “Has America changed at all and, if so, for better or worse?”; and “Where do we go from here?”
Consider the recent killings of young black men and women, and then consider that Medgar, Malcolm and Martin were all killed before the age of 40. Add to those loses many others who were violently taken from us over the decades, and the fact that the esteemed playwright Lorraine Hansberry (“A Raisin in the Sun”), a Civil Rights leader in her own right, left us too soon at the age of 34.
Baldwin challenged America – its powerful, its institutions and its racist traditions – and he at least made white America and the Black bourgeoisie think, perhaps even to feel and occasionally contemplate change.
By the way, in case you can’t make it to the screening on January 11, mark your calendars for Martin’s Birthday, January 15, when KERA-TV will broadcast the documentary as part of its Independent Lens series.
I hope to see you on the 11th. Pass the word.
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