The Negro Protest, the First Edition Book with Three Legendary 1963 Interviews with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin

Martin Luther King Malcolm X. James Baldwin

First Edition

This first edition book is a transcription of 1963 television interviews conducted by Kenneth Clark, noted Black psychologist, with Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X, that elucidates their philosophical approach particularly on the question of nonviolence. The Negro Protest. Boston: Beacon Press, 1963. 56 pages. 8.25" x 5.5". Interviews recorded for National Educational Television in May-June 1963. This iconic series of interviews primarily counterposes the political philosophies of King and X, with James Baldwin eloquently interpreting the successes and tensions of their respective approaches. Malcolm X takes aim at Martin Luther King Jr. and his nonviolent philosophy with an unsparing tongue, " You don't have to criticize Reverend Martin Luther King. His actions criticize him... White people follow King. White people pay king. White people subsidize King... King is the best weapon that the white man, who wants to brutalize Negroes, has ever gotten..."

In response, King's defense of nonviolence contends that, "If anyone has ever lived with a non-violent movement in the South... and seen the reactions of many of the extremists and reactionaries in the white community, he wouldn't say that... this philosophy makes them comfortable. I think it arouses a sense of shame within them often.... I think it does something to touch the conscience and establish a sense of guilt." Baldwin weaves through the opposing philosophies, giving the men their due praise..."[He] articulates their suffering. That's Malcolm's great authority over any of his audiences. He corroborates their reality; he tells them that they really exist.", and as for King, "Martin's a very rare, a very great man... a real Christian." He does cast doubts on the efficacy of nonviolence in a brutally racist society, while also referring to the Black Muslim movement as "sinister", due to its promotion of black supremacist views, which "invests a population with false morale by giving them a false sense of superiority, and it will always break down in a crisis." Baldwin concludes powerfully “The future of the negro in this country is precisely as bright or as dark as the future of the country. It is entirely up to the American people whether or not they’re going to try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a nigger in the first place." Also features two brief concluding sections after the interviews, with one from the interviewer titled Differences and Similarities, as well as A Note About the Interviews, from producer Henry Morgenthau III. Some mild wear and toning to dust jacket, interior clean, overall very good condition.

Item #19026

Price: $385.00