Debate

May 2–11, 2025

“Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?” This was the powerful question posed on February 18, 1965, when a packed audience at the Cambridge Union in England witnessed an historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a staunch critic and leading conservative intellectual. The debate staged a profound clash—Baldwin’s urgent call for a moral reckoning in race relations versus Buckley’s unapologetic elitism and defense of the status quo—exposing the deep racial divides that continue to shape America.

The american vicarious restages this iconic debate not to impersonate Baldwin or Buckley—figures too monumental to imitate—but to bring their words to life through contemporary voices. Sixty years later, their arguments remain strikingly relevant, offering a powerful lens through which to examine the enduring struggle for racial justice in America.