Hello and welcome to the documentary, the cultural front line from the BBC World Service,

the program that explores the world we live in through the work and voices of artists.

I'm Sienna Greaves, and I'm looking at the life and legacy of one of America's most

influential thinkers, writers, and activists, James Baldwin.

His cutting commentary on the racial and socioeconomic realities of the United States

called attention to the daily oppression and injustices facing black and brown people.

And 100 years after his birth, we look at how his words continue to inspire and the issues that he highlighted still continue to impact and resonate today.

It comes as a great shock around the age of five or six or seven.

To discover the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you.

It comes as a great shock to discover that Gary Cooper killing off the Indians when you were rooting for Gary Cooper,

that the Indians were you.

It comes as a great shock to discover that the country which is your birthplace and to which you owe

your life and your identity has not in its whole system of reality evolved any place for you.

That's James Baldwin speaking in 1965, and please note, this episode contains some outdated racial language that could cause

offense. James Baldwin has had a profound impact on American culture and its intellectual history.

In his novel, if Beale Street could talk, he gives us the harsh realities and limitations of racism,

while including a tender and heartwarming look at Black Love.

In essays such as notes on a native son and The Fire Next Time,

he tells how color is not a human or personal reality, but a political one.

Recently, there's been a resurgence in the popularity of Baldwin's works and ideas.

Films like 2016's I Am Not True Negro reintroduced Baldwin to a new, younger audience of artists and thinkers.

And the high-profile violent deaths of black men and women, many at the hands of police,

...