Μάθημα : ΑΓΓΛΙΚΑ Γ'

“Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be”
― James Baldwin

HW

• Bring a song in class that talks about social justice.

Task in class

• “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.”  Explain whether or not you agree with this quote and why.

In I Am Not Your Negro, James Baldwin gives us the history of the Civil Rights Movement by telling it through three of his friends, and great Civil Rights leaders; Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X. Baldwin says in the film that he’s chosen these three men and wants their lives to bang against each other to tell an undeniably honest story. We get glimpses into the lives of these three men and their relationship to James Baldwin. We also see the difference between their activism/protest (i.e. Martin’s peace versus Malcolm’s black muslim–and sometimes violent–activism). Director Raoul Peck also includes clips of protesters, both for and against the rights of black people, and other clips/pictures of black activism (such as the bus boycotts). This takes us deep into the personal level of the Civil Rights Movement, where we can humanize and put faces to the people and groups we learn about in the history books. I Am Not Your Negro also becomes the story of James Baldwin through the things we learn about his childhood, when he watched many films that influenced him as he got older. We also get to hear about his travels in Paris and see clips of him talking/being interviewed. We learn about his views on many things and of his soaring eloquence when he speaks of his passions. One other key aspect in the film that added to the story of Baldwin’s life was the information about the FBI and how they thought he was a threat to national security, as well as a homosexual (which they believed to be terrible).