When Baldwin returned to the United States in 1957, he knew he couldn’t readjust to the country’s racism. The whole system. The whole set-up. I knew I had to be in opposition to it. I couldn’t adjust to it….That was why I went south. I thought—the thing to do, you know, if you’re sitting around in a hotel room for a month or two months, wondering what you’re going to do next and drinking too much and really terribly occupied with yourself, that the thing to do is to, at any price whatever, is get in touch with something which is more than you. Throw yourself into a situation where you won’t
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