I Am Not Your Negro                      5 stars

It has been four years since this documentary about writer and social critic James Baldwin was released and I finally got to see it. The renowned author of several books, plays and essays concerning Black’s place in American history was working on a new project when he passed away in 1987. The book was to be called “Remember This House” and concerned Baldwin’s personal memories of his friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. all of whom were assassinated when they were still young. This excellent documentary shows how articulate and eloquent he was through footage of speeches he gave and appearances on The Dick Cavett Show as well as readings from the unfinished manuscript read by Samuel L. Jackson. The scenes of angry white mobs and portrayals of Blacks in popular culture illustrate just how bad race relations were in America. More recent scenes indicate that we still have a long way to go, but there is hope. As Baldwin has suggested, you can’t study the history of America without studying the history of the Negro in America. The film is expertly put together and is deserving of the Academy Award nomination it received for Best Documentary.