At some point along life’s way I read Giovanni’s Room, a novel by James Baldwin, of whom I knew very little other than he fled the U.S. for France at some point, like many artists and intellectuals. Any semi-conscious American knows that Blacks and Native Americans have gotten a raw deal at the hands of our “American way of life.”
I think part of the early Sixties folk music scene, primarily white, had at its core an awareness that said “something is wrong with this picture.” The more injustice we saw the more unsettling.
Bob Dylan captured some of this angst in his songs, such as “Blowing in the Wind” and “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).”
Baldwin was a novelist, playwright and activist whom Wikipedia describes in this manner. “Baldwin’s novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only African Americans, but also gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individuals’ quests for acceptance.”
