30 years after his death, james baldwin is still shutting nonsense down to lift you up

James Baldwin is… and will always be… the GOAT.

Now, in honor of his life and passing, exactly 30 years after his death we look back on the fiery legacy of educational liberation he’s left, and the path of blunt reclamation he set in place. His teachings were a template, and from educational liberation to rewriting the ingrained scripts of oppression plaguing black bodies, his boundary-breaking sense of self has left an eternal imprint. One of empowerment and unapologetic being, and for that we thank him.

Check out some of his stand-out quotes, white silencings, and culture-defining moments below!

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it. 

People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.