Ludwigsburg, Germany, Feb. 16, 1973: James Baldwin signs autographs as students crowd around at Ludwigsburg High School. The novelist, essayist and playwright, in town for the Black Literature and Culture Week, stopped by the high school to talk to the students and answer their questions. “I prefer speaking to kids. I find adults generally ask a question to get themselves off some hook,” he would later say at an event at Stuttgart’s Liederhalle.

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• Chester Himes and James Baldwin in Germany, 1973