Martin Luther) King, and you remember that lovely photo we all remember with him and Nina ‒ they were close. He came back to the states and he marched with (the Rev. “He was always trying to figure out how he fit into the Civil Rights movement. But she looks back on the personal struggle Baldwin had that she isn’t sure to this day if he ever resolved in his heart. Giovanni and her son got on a flight and the rest was part of her personal history. He asked if I would meet him in London and of course, I would have walked to London to meet Jimmy,” she laughed. A couple of days later he told me he talked to him and that he said he would love to meet me but that he couldn’t come to the United States. Well, at the time I would have done anything to meet James Baldwin. 'He was really trying to get me to do this and he asked me what would it take. The show’s producer, the famous Ellis Haizlip, asked Giovanni to host but she declined, feeling she wasn't prepared for such a big moment.Īlvin Poussaint, a globally known Harvard University professor and psychiatrist who specialized in African American studies, attempted to persuade her. Giovanni recalls her relationship with Baldwin ‒ Jimmy, as she refers to him ‒ and how she got to meet the man she looked up to. They discussed Black love and family, and topics centered around African American culture. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator State of Beauford Delaney by permission of Derek L. James Baldwin and Beauford Delaney, Paris, circa 1960.

Baldwin james the fire next time