On this day in 1965, James Baldwin participated in a nationally televised debate against archconservative William Buckley on the topic of segregation.
The debate is considered a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights movement. Buckley was a prominent opponent of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, which passed just months later. Baldwin ultimately won the debate, wth his proposition “The American dream is at the expense of the American Negro” receiving a 380-vote majority from the The Cambridge Union Society.
Jacobin
source
