The North Star with Shaun King

The North Star with Shaun King

The Ghost of James Baldwin: Racial Conservatism, Critical Race Theory, and the Fear of a Black Idea

TNS contributing writer, Nicholas Mitchell highlights the cultural work of James Baldwin that pre-dated critical race theory and set a framework for today's dissent and scholarly efforts.

TNS Editors
Sep 02, 2021
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James Baldwin speaking; Photo by Marion Jorrin/Pix/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

In the summer following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Black revolt across the country, the United States was a society standing the closest to the abyss of an open race war that it had ever been. White flight was abdicating urban centers to the c…

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