Our celebration of Black History month continues on From the Vault with another treasure from Pacifica’s collection – a recording of author and essayist James Baldwin recently restored through a grant from the American Archive (funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting), in concert with generous support from Pacifica Radio listeners.
In 1963, James Baldwin was traveling America, speaking at churches, high schools, Masonic temples, and universities in promotion of his newly released book, The Fire Next Time. Pacifica Radio was on the scene, recording Baldwin at events in Berkeley, Los Angeles, and New York. Introducing The Free and the Brave, an thoughtful address Baldwin delivered before the congregation of the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles, in which he proposes a solution to the difficult task of creating a racially just society. Recorded by Lorenz Graham just before the March on Washington and the subsequent murders of four children in a Birmingham church, this recording helps us better understand Baldwin’s moral and spiritual trajectory before those profound events of 1963 solidified the Civil Rights Movement.
LANGUAGE DISCLAIMER: Throughout this recording, Baldwin refers to the African American as “Negro,†and uses the “N†word twice. This audio is presented in its original restored version – unedited – for the sake of historical and contextual accuracy.
This episode of From the Vault was first broadcast on February 18, 2011.
From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.
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