Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son

In this essay, Baldwin extends some of his ideas from the previous essay. He opens the piece with the juxtaposition of Patrice Lumumba’s assassination and Adlai Stevenson’s address to the General Assembly at the United Nations. Baldwin argues that the Cold War gives Americans an excuse to avoid self-examination by labeling anyone who might challenge the country’s treatment of Black people as a Communist. It is dangerous to blame outsiders for the discontent and protest of marginalized groups.

Baldwin explains that the experiences of Harlem can be understood through the development of two major groups: the Black Student Movement and the Muslim movement. The former centers its work on liberating everyone with the understanding that white people need to see Black people for who they are so that they can begin to examine themselves. Baldwin asserts that the Muslim movement challenges the sincerity of American sentiments and calls for a separation of races. The author agrees with both approaches and acknowledges the truth in the inaction of white people: “Negroes know how little most white people are prepared to implement their words with deeds, how little, when the chips are down, they are prepared to risk” (77).