"Notes of a Native Son"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines James Baldwin's book, "Notes of a Native Son", published in 1955, which is a collection of nine essays he had written on the state of what were then called "Negroes" in the United States. It looks at how, in his essays, he notes the interface between his personal life, the social atmosphere of the day, the political movements of the day, and even what was going on in entertainment. The result is essays that give a view of the Negro experience in the 1950s that is both broad and deep.

From the Paper:

"In another essay he talks about the neighborhood press in the Harlem of the time. Harlem at that time was run-down, and he reports, rents there were higher than they were in other parts of Manhattan, something not generally true today. He complained that the Negro newspapers emulated White newspapers, focusing on prominent crimes committed by Blacks, or society gossip about the Harlem upper crust. He found fault with the Black magazine Ebony, which he said encouraged people to a sentimental kind of happiness that suggested they should assume things would get better. He wryly noted that if this were true, "Black" publications wouldn't be necessary and noted that the article was accompanied by a Black woman carrying a basket of onions from a field."

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