The Critic's Choice Book Review Begin Again. James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own By Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. Crown Publishers New York 2020 Christine Nava, MS Former President, Escondido Chamber of Citizens Civic Leader for Social Justice & Human Rights San Diego, CA Tel: (760) 715-9053 Email:
[email protected] Author Note The release of Begin Again in June 2020 was met with acclamation from critics throughout the country, including scholars, historians, political leaders, and giants in the Black struggle. This reviewer is not among this distinguished group of critics. I am a lay person--an ordinary woman on the street--whose life of activism began as a member of a religious community when, in 1965, I joined a group of Catholic sisters from St. Louis and travelled to Selma to protest at the Selma Voting Rights March. The event had a profound effect on my life that remains to this day. In my “after life” since I left religious community, I raised a family, taught, joined civic organizations, lobbied members of congress and local elected officials on social justice issues, never forgetting the importance of bearing witness--the lessons of Selma. Introduction My work on this book began with James Baldwin’s words, “You must understand that your pain is trivial except insofar as you can use it to connect other people’s pain, and insofar as you can do that with your pain, you can be released from it, and then hopefully it works the other way around too; insofar as I can tell you what it is to suffer, perhaps I can help you to suffer less.” — Begin Again, p.