Then the white men had come, preaching a strange religion, strange ways, which all men followed. The tribe's code of behaviour was broken.

Stabbed by the steeple,
scalped by the chapel,
the choir's got my tongue,
and the preacher's got my Adam's apple.

Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false.

James Baldwin was born for truth. It called upon him to tell it on the mountains, to preach it in Harlem, to sing it on the Left Bank in Paris. His honesty and courage would lead him to see truth and to write truth in poetry, drama, fiction, and essay. He was a giant.