James Baldwin Review (Oct 2017)

Time to Tell

  • Dennis Ray Knight Jr.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7227/JBR.3.8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 1
pp. 131 – 151

Abstract

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If he is known for anything other than his writings, James Baldwin is best known for his work as a civil rights activist. What is often overlooked is Baldwin’s work toward uniting two under-represented and oppressed groups: African Americans and homosexuals. With his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Baldwin began a career of speaking about and for homosexuals and their relationship with the institutions of African-American communities. Through its focus on a sensitive, church-going teenager, Go Tell It on the Mountain dramatizes the strain imposed upon homosexual members of African-American communities within the Pentecostal Church through its religious beliefs.

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