Baldwin explained civil unrest in a speech following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and subsequent riots across the nation. Baldwin said at the time, "The reason that Black people are in the streets has to do with the lives they're forced to lead in this country, and they're forced to lead these lives by the indifference and the apathy and a certain kind of ignorance — a very willful ignorance — on the part of their co-citizens."
"The curtain of my colour is what you use to avoid facing the facts of our common history."
Baldwin continued, "I want exactly what you want: I want to be left alone." He added, "I simply want to be able to raise my children in peace, and arrive at my own maturity in my own way, in peace. I don't want to be defined by you. I think that you and I might learn a great a deal from each other, if you can overcome the curtain that is my colour. The curtain of my colour is what you use to avoid facing the facts of our common history, the facts of American life." Watch the powerful clip above.