A Talk to Teachers

Baldwin penned “A Talk to Teachers” during the 100th-year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. In a critique of the Proclamation’s limits (as a reminder, the Proclamation only freed those enslaved in Confederate states), William Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of state, commented, “We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.” How does James Baldwin address such inhumane ironies in the text of his own essay? How does he grapple with the half-measures taken by the government and society in the struggles for freedom and equality?

The version of “A Talk to Teachers” used for this guide is from the Zinn Education Website, which classifies this speech as being key to what the organization designates as the People’s Movement: 1961-1974. What about Baldwin’s speech specifies that this is an essay addressing struggles that can be classified as being part of the People’s Movement? What “people” is Baldwin referencing? What historic events from that time span can directly relate to this speech?

The same year that “A Talk to Teachers” was written, Baldwin released The Fire Next Time, a national bestseller and a text that was central to the civil rights movement.