In 2010, we renamed our school after James Baldwin, an iconic American writer and activist who lived from 1924-1987. James Baldwin is regarded as one of the great writers of his time and many of his works are still used today to teach about the experiences he discusses in his work.

James Baldwin’s writing stretched across many forms including essays, novels, plays, and poems but he always tried to critique society in his writing to illuminate the forms of systemic oppression that exist within our world. James Baldwin’s work, which was mainly fictional, discussed the major themes associated with the social and psychological pressures that one faces going through life. A large amount of Baldwin’s inspiration for this type of writing comes from his own life, facing prejudice as someone who identified as a gay black male.

Many of the protagonists in James Baldwin’s work deal with issues of identity and navigating a society riddled with various prejudices. The lessons learned from Baldwin’s writings are ones that we try to instill in all of our students and in our culture here at The James Baldwin Academy. We teach and demonstrate these themes that James Baldwin embodied through courses, extra-curriculars, and on-going conversations about the world and all our lived experiences. One major lesson being that the resolution to many of the problems associated with identity and self is centered in love and unconditional care.

Although James Baldwin was a great writer, he was much more than just that. James Baldwin was a social and political activist, playing a key role in the Civil Rights movement. During this time, Baldwin made a dangerous decision to travel down to the American south to conduct interviews with the disenfranchised black individuals of Charlotte, NC and Montgomery, AL. In these interviews Baldwin asked people about their experiences living in the racist American south, getting details about how they have gone through life and the obstacles they had to face. In response to these interviews James Baldwin wrote two essays that would appear in The New York Times and The New Yorker where he illuminated the racist injustices that were occurring. Following these writings, he became a lecturer and member of the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE) where he traveled around the country attempting to enact the change of a racist and oppressive system.

James Baldwin encompasses so much of what we do here at the James Baldwin Academy. In an effort to enact change like Baldwin, we instill in our students the necessary tools to prepare them to navigate society and establish a firmer sense of self. We push our students to be critical of the world around them, to take action to improve their own lives and the lives of others. Our main beliefs here at JBA; respect, integrity, safety, and engagement; are values that are personified by James Baldwin. We are honored to have our school named after this American icon and hope to spread the knowledge and passion of James Baldwin to all our students here at JBA.