Analysis Of Sonny's Blue By James Baldwin

James Baldwin was a figure associated with Civil Rights. He was a grandson of a slave African American, and was born in Harlem, New York in 1924. Baldwin worked as a railroad worker where he was being discriminated based on his color and for being a gay. During that period, he wrote a lot about race and discrimination, but also wrote about homosexuality in “Giovanni’s Room”. Baldwin’s writings gave a powerful voice in activism.
Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blue is a short story about Sonny and his older brother(narrator). The story took place during the 1950’s in Harlem, New York. All the major themes in the story addiction, family, and suffering are tied to race and racism. Sonny’s Blue gave a glimpse of an African-American living in Harlem during the Civil Rights. …show more content…
It all started with Slavery. Slavery was abolished in 1865 by 13th Amendment and then African-American were treated as second class citizen. Scared tactics were used on them, burned alive to keep formal slaved from owning property, got involved in government or challenged laws like Jim Craw. After passing 13th Amendment, neither things were great in southern states, nor were they in the north. They were treated as second class citizen and the unemployment rate was really high for African-American. They did not have basic rights like voting, and access to equal housing opportunity. The Great Migration moved about 6 million African American from the rural south to northern cities. During the World War II, white men fought the war and the black men went to take their job in the northern cities. Huge number of formal slaves rushed towards the new employment opportunity. After the war, African American were the first one to lose their jobs and most of them were taken back by white