Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin

He once wrote, 'If the concept of God has any use, it is to make us larger, freer, and more loving. He later praised religion where it inspired people to fight against oppression, and heavily criticized it for it's perpetuation of hatred. During this time he had dated and fallen in love with Lucien Happersberger until the man got married to someone else three years later after they met. He later converted from Baptist to Pentecostal and became a junior minister whose word reached out and drew many more people than his step father on his best day. However, he became dissatisfied with ministry, considering it hypocritical and racist, and ultimately left the church because his father's expectation was that he be a preacher.

Among some of his first works were the writing of the official song for his school and a play that was actually put on by his peers and directed by one of his teachers.ĭuring his teenage years, Baldwin followed his stepfather's shadow into the religious life. He isolated himself in libraries, away from his burdening step-father and there discovered his talent and passion for writing. James grew up in a poor household with nine other siblings and was treated the worst out of all of them.

He was also a playwright and like many of our other legends, a well spoken activist for black and gay people with novels and plays that fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures that thwart the equitable integration of these communities into societal norms.īorn on August 2nd, a leo, to Emma Berdis Jones and an unnamed biological father, she left him because of drug abuse and went on to marry a Baptist preacher by the name of David Baldwin. As an author, James Balwin wrote one of the novels that become an Academy Award winning movie: ' If Beale Street Could Talk'.

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin