The Fire Next Time

A short book made of two essays that first appeared in magazines in 1962. The first, “My Dungeon Shook”, is a letter to Baldwin's teenage nephew on the hundredth anniversary of Emancipation. It tells him that he was born into a country that expected him to be worthless, and that white Americans are trapped in a history they do not understand; the task is to accept them with love and so help them change. The second, “Down at the Cross”, recalls Baldwin's adolescence in Harlem, the fear that drove him into the church, his years as a boy preacher and his loss of faith. He then describes a visit to Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, whose anger he understands but whose separatism he rejects. He argues that the country can be saved only if Black and white Americans face the truth of their history together. The title comes from a spiritual warning of fire after the flood.

It is one of the clearest and most forceful pieces of writing on race, religion and moral responsibility in America, and its demand for honesty about history still applies.