Readers React

In the weeks following the publication of James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind,” letters from the magazine’s overwhelmingly white readership poured into the New Yorker offices. Some were moved and humbled by Baldwin’s observations. Others responded defensively, revealing the racism of their worldviews. Before Baldwin’s essay, The New Yorker had published only two Black writers, Langston Hughes and Ann Petry, and its editorial staff was largely white. With its deft and devastating analysis of American race relations, “Letter from a Region in My Mind” was a turning point for the magazine, though substantial change in the magazine’s staffing would take many decades.