"I Am Not Your Negro": A Witness to History and Violence

Novelist and essayist James Baldwin began a project, shortly before he died, to explore recent American history reflected through the lens of three pivotal figures: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. These three figures represent three aspects of African American thought in the mid-20th century. Baldwin's voice adds a fourth dimension to the narrative.

Baldwin's narration in the movie, spoken by Samuel L. Jackson, weaves the themes of how America defines its heroes, the concept of racial "purity," the narrative of "innocence" despite a history of violence, and what it means to be a "witness." Baldwin wraps these themes around his encounters with Medgar, Malcolm and Martin and their widows.

The movie begins with Baldwin in exile, in France, contemplating what it means to "pay one's dues," during the struggle for racial equality in the United States. His reflections on being a bystander, and also on many of his countrymen's apathy and indifference toward that effort, lead him to return home. As a writer, he must be a witness to history and document it.

The central question in the film, as Baldwin articulates it, is not "What will become of the [Black American]?" but "What will become of America" if it continues on the path on which it is headed?

An underlying question throughout the film is, "What is the state of a civilization that produces such violence?"

Baldwin evaluates American history not so much by its words or its professed ideals, but by the behavior of its institutions, especially its religious institutions.

Noting that the present is both a departure from, and a continuation of the past Baldwin writes, at one point in the film: "We are our history."

At another point, he makes an observation that might serve as the overarching theme and the purpose of making the movie: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can change until it has been faced."