In his essay “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind” in The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin (1962/1993) relates his thoughts and experience with the Nation of Islam as well as his outlook for the possibilities of improving America’s racial situation in the 1960s. He begins by explaining why he was at first indifferent to the Nation of Islam movement and tells how his interest grew. Baldwin writes, “I dismissed the Nation of Islam’s demand for a separate black economy in America, which I had also heard before as willful, and even mischievous, nonsense” (p. 48). Baldwin then goes on to describe how his own experiences as an African American gave him sympathy for the movement and led him to understand why other African Americans were so supportive of the Nation of Islam.
Specifically Baldwin states that he was drawn to give more attention to the Nation of Islam because of “the behavior of the police” (p. 48) and “the behavior of the crowd” (p. 49). He saw that the police were not attacking Nation of Islam speakers and that they acted frightened instead of aggressive (48). Furthermore, Baldwin observed the crowds of people responded to the speakers, “with a kind of intelligence of hope on their faces—not as though they were being consoled or drugged but jolted” (p. 49). This is how Baldwin became interested in the Nation of Islam, but later on in the essay he describes his disenchantment with the movement. Baldwin describes his first meeting with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and it seems that it was this meeting that ultimately led Baldwin to decide that the Nation of Islam was not leading African Americans in the right direction. Baldwin feels particularly uncomfortable at the meeting with Elijah Muhammad because he (Baldwin) has white friends that he cares about and he feels Elijah Muhammad cannot accept such friendships in his followers (p. 71). Ultimately Baldwin rejects the Nation of Islam’s message as hateful, impractical, and spiritually (or theologically) unsound (p. 67, p. 70, p. 79).
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"Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind".
Baldwin’s outlook for the African American population is bleak at some points and more hopeful at others. Early in the essay Baldwin states, “It is extremely unlikely that Negroes will ever rise to power in the United States” (p. 83). Some might argue that he has been proven false with Obama in the White House. However, Obama is not descended from people who were brought to the U.S. as slaves, so he isn’t really part of the population Baldwin is discussing. The hope that Baldwin sees for African Americans is actually a hope for the liberation of Americans as a whole. Baldwin sees white society not only as a problem for African Americans but as a problem for white Americans as well. Baldwin writes, “The price of liberation of the white people is the liberation of the blacks—the total liberation, in the cities, in the towns, before the law, and in the mind” (p. 97). He also states that he believes revolution can take place in the U.S., which is a hopeful idea (Baldwin p. 91). It seems that what Baldwin is saying is that African Americans cannot truly rise to power in the sense of taking power from the white elite, but that liberation and revolution for all Americans is a possibility, but only if there is liberation for everyone in the nation.
Much of what he wrote in this essay can still be applied to the current racial situation of the U.S., which is deeply unfortunate. I did feel that it was odd that (according to Baldwin) the Nation of Islam was so concerned with the oppressor aspects of Christianity and seems to claim Islam as an African religion, since Islam originated on another continent and was brought to Africa by Arab colonizers. I was waiting to see if Baldwin would confront this issue, but he never brought it up. I though given his criticisms of the Nation of Islam he might have seen the fact that Islam is not an African religion any more than Christianity is as a problem. However, for the most part I found the essay to be thoughtful and well-balanced. Baldwin gives an excellent explanation of the issues that helped bring about the rise of the Nation of Islam as well as explaining his own doubts and subsequent rejection of the movement.
