It is easy to look back with hindsight and know who was right and who was wrong. When I first started researching the debate, I came across an article written about the James Baldwin versus William Buckley debate by a teacher who said, "History is always being swallowed by the present." We see it today with the same sex marriage, gun control oppositionist, the Patriot Act, nationalized healthcare, and to some extent, drug laws.
             There are people alive today who believed with conviction in the stance that William Buckley, Jr. stood for; even after Buckley publicly withdrew is defense against desegregation. History, as it stands, has a way of forgetting those details. Just as you may know some who voted against same sex marriage, background checks for gun ownership, and mandatory healthcare; you also may know someone who stood for segregation – however odd it may sound. The fact is, the issues at hand today is no different than the issues America had tried to keep previously.
             The importance of Buckley vs. Baldwin wasn't just academic, it was cultural. When you watch the debate, you can see that 1965 sat the precipice of change. You see in the room that it wasn't just that Baldwin won; it was Buckley showed up already having lost. For someone in the present looking back at that debate, they would have to understand who Buckley was and where he had come from; as well as where Baldwin came from, who he was, and how he ended up in the debate. When you truly understand Baldwin and Buckley, you can truly understand why the debate vote was heavily one sided.
             Before graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, Baldwin had already published numerous poems, short stories, and plays in magazines; as well as serving as a youth minister in a Harlem Pentecostal church. Yet, after graduating, he had to put his plans for college on hold to support his seven younger siblings, his mother, and his father &nd...