How Hollywood BROKE James Baldwin

In the late 1960s, Baldwin was approached to write a biopic about Malcolm X. But soon, state violence and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr would drive him over the edge.

During the same period, Hollywood underwent intense scrutiny due to fears of Communist infiltration in the film industry. This led to the implementation of the Hollywood Blacklist, which barred individuals with suspected communist ties from working in the entertainment industry. Studios and filmmakers faced pressure to adhere to strict censorship guidelines to avoid being labeled as communist sympathizers. This resulted in the production of films and scripts that often avoided controversial or politically charged topics.

Baldwin was against this censorship and didn’t want to be a party to a “second assassination” of Malcolm X with a diluted script.

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CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Intro and Black life in the late 1960s

• 03:08 Billy Porter, Zionism and James Baldwin biopic

• 03:58 James Baldwin tries to write Malcolm X script

• 07:28 How 1968 and Hollywood Breaks James Baldwin

• 12:04 The difference between the Baldwin and Spike Lee versions of Malcolm X

• 15:58 Outro and conclusions

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SIGN THE PETITION… to demand an end to Billy Porter's biopic of James Baldwin

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