James Baldwin spent the last years of his life working on Remember This House, a book about the lives and deaths of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Baldwin died before finishing the project, but his words have found a new home in Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, which mixes text from Baldwin’s manuscript (narrated by Samuel L. Jackson) with archival footage of the late author to present a portrait of blackness in America. In this exclusive clip from the film, Baldwin explores his own relationship with American history. “One of the most terrible things, is that, whether I like it or not, I am an American,†he explains. “My school really was the streets of New York City; my frame of reference was George Washington and John Wayne.†But as Jackson’s voice notes, “The truth is, this country does not know what to do with its black population.â€Â After a brief Oscar-qualifying run last year, I Am Not Your Negro hits theaters February 3.
Watch James Baldwin Discuss His Relationship With America in a New Clip From I Am Not Your Negro
