Reading Order
The Evidence of Things Not Seen Reading Order
The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985) by James Baldwin is his fifth book of extended nonfiction — a long meditation on the Atlanta Child Murders (1979-1981), in which at least 28 Black children and young adults were killed in Atlanta over two years, and on Wayne Williams, the Black man who was convicted of two of the murders and presumed responsible for the rest. Baldwin uses the murders and the trial as the occasion for a wide-ranging meditation on race, justice, the American legal system, and what it has meant to be Black in America, and on the specific question of what it means when a Black man is convicted by a white legal system of killing Black children. The Evidence of Things Not Seen is among the least celebrated of Baldwin's major works and arguably the one most shaped by specific current events, which can make it feel more dated than his other nonfiction. But it is also the book in which Baldwin most directly addresses the American criminal justice system and its relationship to race — the question of whether a fair trial is possible in America when the defendant is Black, and what the conviction of Wayne Williams tells us about who America is willing to believe and who it is willing to sacrifice. The title is from Hebrews 11:1 — 'Faith is the evidence of things not seen' — and the religious dimension of Baldwin's thinking is everywhere in the book.
Where to start
Read The Fire Next Time (1963) and No Name in the Street (1972) first — they are Baldwin's essential nonfiction. The Evidence of Things Not Seen is best read as the final major nonfiction work in the sequence. Any Holt paperback.
Complete The Evidence of Things Not Seen Book List
- 1Buy
The Evidence of Things Not Seen
James Baldwin·1985·The essay — the Atlanta Child Murders, Wayne Williams's conviction, and Baldwin's meditation on race, justice, and the American criminal system; the final major nonfiction work in the sequence begun by The Fire Next Time; the most specific and the most dated of his major nonfiction. - 2Buy
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin·1963·Baldwin's most celebrated essay — the essential predecessor and the most important companion; The Fire Next Time's prophetic hope is the beginning of a nonfiction sequence that ends in the darker reckoning of The Evidence of Things Not Seen. - 3Buy
No Name in the Street
James Baldwin·1972·Baldwin's companion essay — the intermediate work in his nonfiction sequence; the despair of No Name in the Street deepens in The Evidence of Things Not Seen. - 4Buy
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin·1956·Baldwin's companion novel — the formal accomplishment of his fiction alongside his nonfiction; reading both together shows Baldwin's range across mode and subject. - 5Buy
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote·1966·Capote's nonfiction novel — the companion in American literary journalism about a murder case and its prosecution; where Capote writes about a white Kansas community's reckoning with two white killers, Baldwin writes about America's reckoning with a Black man accused of killing Black children. - 6Buy
Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson·2014·Stevenson's memoir about wrongful convictions and the death penalty — the companion in American legal nonfiction about the racial injustice of the American criminal system; where Baldwin analyzes the Atlanta Child Murders from the perspective of a writer, Stevenson analyzes similar systemic failures from the perspective of a lawyer. - 7Buy
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates·2015·Coates's letter to his son — the contemporary companion in African American essayistic writing about race and the body; Coates is explicitly in the tradition of Baldwin's nonfiction, and Between the World and Me is the most important recent work in that tradition. - 8Buy
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander·2010·Alexander's study of mass incarceration — the companion in contemporary analysis of the American criminal justice system's relationship to race; where Baldwin examines one trial, Alexander examines the system as a whole.
The Evidence of Things Not Seen — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Evidence of Things Not Seen about?
The Evidence of Things Not Seen uses the Atlanta Child Murders (1979-1981) and the trial of Wayne Williams as its occasion for a wide-ranging meditation on race, justice, and America. Between 1979 and 1981, at least 28 Black children and young adults were killed in Atlanta. Wayne Williams, a Black man in his early 20s, was convicted of two of the adult murders; authorities closed most of the child cases, attributing them to Williams on circumstantial evidence. Baldwin is interested in the specific situation of a Black man convicted by the American legal system of killing Black children, in what the case reveals about who America is willing to believe and who it is willing to sacrifice, and in the relationship between the murders and the broader crisis of Black life in America in the Reagan era.
What does the title mean?
The title is from Hebrews 11:1 — 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' Baldwin is using the biblical language of faith to examine the American legal system's claim to produce truth: the legal standard of 'evidence beyond reasonable doubt' is Baldwin's subject, and he is asking whether the conviction of Wayne Williams meets that standard, or whether the conviction rests on a different kind of faith — the faith that a Black man in the dock is guilty, the faith that the legal system produces justice. The religious reference is also characteristic of Baldwin's late work: he is more explicitly theological in his final nonfiction than in The Fire Next Time.
Was Wayne Williams guilty?
The question of Wayne Williams's guilt has been disputed from the beginning. Williams was convicted of two murders; authorities attributed most or all of the child murders to him on circumstantial evidence, but he was never tried for the child murders directly. Some investigators have argued that a Ku Klux Klan connection was ignored; others have argued that Williams was railroaded; still others argue that the evidence against him is strong. Baldwin takes the position not that Williams was innocent but that the trial did not produce the kind of certainty that would warrant convicting him — and that the speed of the conviction and the closing of the cases reflected the American criminal system's desire to be done with the case, not to achieve justice.
How does The Evidence of Things Not Seen fit in Baldwin's nonfiction?
The Evidence of Things Not Seen is the last in the sequence of Baldwin's extended nonfiction works: The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985). Each book is darker than the last: The Fire Next Time still contains hope for transformation; No Name in the Street reckons with the defeat of that hope; The Evidence of Things Not Seen examines America in the Reagan era, after the gains of the civil rights movement have been substantially reversed. The sequence is one of the great sustained works of American political writing, and it tracks Baldwin's evolving understanding of American racial reality from prophetic hope to what is nearly despair.
What should I read after The Evidence of Things Not Seen?
After The Evidence of Things Not Seen, The Fire Next Time (1963) is Baldwin's most celebrated essay. No Name in the Street (1972) is the companion intermediate work. For contemporary African American nonfiction in the same tradition, Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me is the most important companion. Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow are important companions in the tradition of American legal journalism about race.
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