The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedJames Baldwin
Title QuotedFire Next Time
Date (Year/Month/Day)1963/02/23
Imprint[S.l.] : Dial Press. 1963
QuotationHave read James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and now Nobody Knows My Name. He seems to know exactly what he is talking about, and his statements are terribly urgent. One of the things that makes most sense-an application of the ideas behind non-violence, but I think it is absolutely true: that the sit-in movement is not just to get the negroes a few hamburgers, it is for the sake of the white people, and for the country. He is one of the few genuinely concerned Americans, one whose concern I can really believe. The liberation of the Negroes is necessary for the liberation of the whites and for their recovery of a minimum of self-respect, and reality.
Quotation SourceTurning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 4, 1960-1963.; Edited by Victor A. Kramer. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 297
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