Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems

by James Baldwin

Baldwin was dangerous to everybody who had anything to hide. Baldwin was also the priceless inheritance to anybody looking for manumission from who they didn’t want or have to be.

I do not believe James Baldwin can be wholly read without first understanding white men and their penchant for tyranny and “unrelenting brutality.”

And, so, I always wonder: can blindness be desired? Then, what must the blinded eyes have seen to wish to see no more!

Then, perhaps they imagine that their crimes are not crimes?

Our children are the morning star.