It is an eloquent and powerful exploration of race, identity and power. The book is a non-fiction book that was written by James Baldwin in 1963 in a time of civil rights marches and extreme violence against blacks who sought to assert their civil and human rights in a society that struggled, and continues to struggle today, with a legacy of slavery, racism, and white supremacy. In the book James Baldwin discusses some of the experiences that shaped his perspective on race and on the figurative intersection of race, power, and identity. Baldwin observes that "Color is not human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.