Influential African American writer James Arthur Baldwin (1924–1987) was born on this day in Harlem, New York City, the stepson of a preacher. At 14, he stepped behind the pulpit himself as a Pentecostal minister—already honing the voice that would one day move the world.

“People pay for what they do, and, still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply: by the lives they lead,” he once said. His life became a brilliant example of truth and transformation.

Inspired by his literary mentor Richard Wright, Baldwin moved to Paris in 1948 to escape the limitations of American racism and find freedom in his craft. He remained there for ten years. “The making of an American begins at the point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and himself adopts the vesture of his adopted lands,” he explained.

“The responsibility of a writer is to excavate the experience of the people who produced him.”

Baldwin’s breakout novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), is a spiritual and moral reckoning centered on a troubled Black family during the Depression. Based on his own childhood, the book revealed deeply human characters through a groundbreaking use of Black idioms and gospel truth.

“*Mountain*,” Baldwin said, “is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else.”

Returning to the United States in 1960, Baldwin became a fearless voice in the Civil Rights Movement. His essays and speeches blazed with urgency, calling forth passion and justice.

“Experience,” he said, “is a private, and a very largely speechless affair.” And yet, he gave voice to so many who had been silenced. He was honored among the Top 100 Writers of the 20th Century. Click to explore the rest.