If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?

Born in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin was the oldest of nine children and a grandson of enslaved people. His love affair with language began in middle school, where he was fortunate to have Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen as one of his teachers. Baldwin knew by the time he was 14 that he wanted to be a writer, and his talents were encouraged at the then-prestigious DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx.

Baldwin’s upbringing in the Baptist church (his stepfather was a preacher) influenced his awareness of language’s power, which he conveys in this essay. While a young teenager, Baldwin worked for three years as a preacher, and in the essay he draws on Biblical references and discusses the power of the Black church in the making of Black English. He ended that vocation at 18, when he also moved away from his childhood home.

Baldwin left the United States for Europe in 1948 at age 24. He said that he hoped to escape both the racism he experienced and the antigay environment in Harlem (New York City) at that time. Although he initially refrained from publicly speaking of himself as a gay man, he also didn’t hide his romantic relationships with men, and his 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room marked a watershed in queer literature.

In hindsight, he said, “[o]nce I found myself on the other side of the ocean, I could see where I came from very clear […]. You can never escape that. I am the grandson of a slave, and I am a writer. I must deal with both” (“Chez Baldwin.” National Museum of African American History & Culture). Baldwin’s first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953. The novel about growing up in Harlem describes the lives of Black Americans with a similar passion to that conveyed in this essay.

James Baldwin spent 23 years (1948-1971) traveling widely and writing. He frequently returned to the United States while also living in or visiting France, Switzerland, Turkey, West Africa, and Kenya. In 1971 the writer moved to St. Paul de Vence in the south of France. His experience with these cultures is reflected in his analysis of foreign languages in “If Black English Isn’t a Language…” including French.

In 1973, just 10 years after choosing Baldwin for its cover on the strength of The Fire Next Time, Time magazine declined to publish an interview with the writer, judging him to be passé. Some critics questioned the relevance of Baldwin’s work, while other critics aimed to ensure that Baldwin was included in the African American literary canon as Black studies became an established scholarly field during the 1970s and 1980s.

A best-selling author of more than 30 works, Baldwin is considered a quintessential voice of the Black American experience. However, his prominent detractors included his initial mentor and on-again-off-again friend Richard Wright (books Black Boy (1945), Native Son (1945)) and writer, political activist, and member of the Black Panther Party Eldridge Cleaver (prison memoir Soul on Ice (1965)). Cleaver’s attacks on Baldwin were marked by antigay sentiments. Some in the Black American community felt that Baldwin’s work focused too much on appealing to white Americans, and he was occasionally criticized for his steadfast pacifism. Baldwin died at 63 of stomach cancer in St. Paul de Vence, France, on November 30, 1987.