See and hear author, activist and American Master James Baldwin meet with members of the local African-American community in San Francisco in the early 1960s. “Take This Hammer” shows a Baldwin intent on discovering what he called, “the real situation of Negroes in the city, as opposed to the image San Francisco would like to present.”
Film courtesy of the Channel Thirteen-PBS in New York archive.
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William F.Buckley once described James Baldwin as an “eloquent menace”.The video that I just viewed where Mr.Baldwin converses on the”Negro”(the term at the time) situation in San Francisco and the world,I found righteously menacing.For what Mr. Baldwin described was nothing less than what we know has come to be the truth.An African-American has become President in spite of the”situation”back then.Mr.Baldwin visited my highschool before his death and I found his narrative of the American Experience just as intriguing as those of your staff who deemed him an American Master.Thank You.