Late Baldwin witnessed the reassertion of the American lie against the movement

Evidence

Baldwin also wrote about what he viewed as the shattering of Dr. King’s dream. He sought to understand what happened after the collapse of the civil rights movement (especially after Dr. King’s murder in 1968), the emergence of Black Power, the significance of the rise of the black middle class and the so-called black underclass, and the scope of white America’s commitment to resist fundamental change. He was no longer writing from the standpoint of someone energized by the movement who took it upon himself to bear witness to it, but rather as a witness to the reassertion of the American lie in the face of that movement. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 106

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s project of recanonizing late Baldwin — this is the pivot from witness-to-the-movement to witness-of-the-lie.