This is a photo of James Baldwin's original DeWitt Clinton High School yearbook displayed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY. While in middle school, Baldwin received encouragement in his studies from two African American teachers, the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen and Herman W. Porter, a Harvard-educated math teacher, who helped Baldwin run the school magazine. Cullen’s French class and experience living in France influenced Baldwin’s later decision to move there.

It was Cullen who encouraged Baldwin to attend his own alma mater, the predominantly Jewish, prestigious DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, considered one of the top public schools in the city. There he edited the school literary magazine Magpie and participated in the literary club. At the school he met his close friends—Richard Avedon, Emile Capouya, and Sol Stein.

Fun Fact: LMB Executive Director, Tara Phillips's father also attended DeWitt Clinton High School, 20 years after the great James Baldwin!