James Baldwin was one of the most significant figures of the 20th century. In this moment of racial reckoning, his life and work are being discovered and rediscovered. He was born in 1924 and died in 1987. He graduated from high school in New York but was otherwise self-taught. He said, “I love America more than any other country in the world.” That's why I reserve “the right to perpetually criticize her.” And criticize he did. In his classic essays such as The Fire Next Time and Notes of a Native Son and his novels Go Tell it on the Mountain and Another Country, he wrote about the white power structure, systemic racism, police brutality, sexism, homophobia, inequality and predatory capitalism.