This story was written for a Medium Publication, The Daily Cuppa, with a limit of 150 words. It is a follow-up to another story I wrote for Medium and placed on this site, The Beautiful Mysteries of Teaching.
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Several readers asked for a follow-up to this story that concluded with a young student having coffee with James Baldwin in Paris in 1960.
The student was on a scholarship that funded a year of classes at a French university in Paris. On walks through the French capital, she noticed a black man sitting by himself at an outdoor cafe typing on a Remington.
One day, she introduced herself. He asked her to join him, offering coffee and pastries. In 1960, James Baldwin was 37 and had written two novels, Go Tell It On the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, and Notes of a Native Son, a book of essays. He left the United States in 1948, seeking artistic freedom outside the orbit of American racism.
Not really knowing who he was, this young white woman met with him several times, finding Baldwin warm, relaxed, and curious about her life.
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