Two parts to this book. First, a letter to James Baldwin’s nephew, a love letter, telling him that America is also his country, that he must not doubt his value, that he must not agree to carry the image that others reflect on him. The second part is dense, his faith, his encounter with “Nation of Islam” but the message that it conveys is that of love for each other, that no race is superior and that the aim is to live intelligently side by side. Powerful and sad also because it seems that 60 years later, the situation has not evolved hugely.
“I do not mean to be sentimental about suffering – enough is certainly as good as a feast – but people who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they are.”