James Baldwin on San Francisco -- "Take this Hammer" (1964)

 Still image taken from "Take this Hammer (The Director's Cut)" (1964)

Today (August 2) is James Baldwin’s birthday. In honor of it, I thought I’d post some thoughts I wrote a while back (on Mastodon) on Richard O. Moore’s 1964 documentary (originally aired on PBS) “Take this Hammer,” which follows Baldwin on a visit to San Francisco. The point of the visit is to explore what the real situation is for Black San Franciscans, despite the myth of SF being a "liberal" city and what that might otherwise seem to suggest. A low quality version of the PBS version of the documentary is also available on YouTube:

Much of the film has to do with showing the structural racism (but not only structural racism) on display in SF, with the development and redevelopment of neighborhoods for profit and the forcing out of Black residents. Parts of the film may be familiar to viewers of other documentaries on Baldwin. At one point in the film, Baldwin says (as I attempted to capture it):

“I conclude that all this has something to do with money. The land has been reclaimed for money, and that the people who are putting up their houses expect to make a profit, but it seems to me I’m attacking what’s called a profit motive. There are some things that are more important than profits. I live in New York City, and it’s been turned into a desert really, for the same reason. And what’s happening in San Francisco now is that the society made the assumption or certainly acts from the assumption that to make money is more important than to have citizens.”

The film also deals with topics relating to religion, racism, and Black spiritual/cultural life. The themes relating to religion seem quite similar in general to the themes Baldwin explores in The Fire Next Time (1963). About 30 minutes in, Baldwin remarks, while looking at the burnt ruins of old St. Mary’s Cathedral (again, please forgive any errors in transcribing):

“I was raised a Christian, you know. My daddy and my momma were very religious. They knew that white Christians were not Christians because of the way they treated Black people. And the Christian Church in this country has never in my experience, never as far as I know, been Christian. The record is much more than shameful…The record proves that as we stand here as of this moment, the Christian church is bankrupt.”

There's also a director's cut of "Take this Hammer," which has an additional 15 minutes of content not included in the PBS version (with also a slightly different ordering of the conversations). It's available online at the Bay Area Television Archive at San Francisco State University.

https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/216518

This excerpt from the "about" section on the director's cut is telling:

In either form, I strongly recommend this film, especially for people interested in James Baldwin, the history of San Francisco, facing up to racism in American life, or all of the above.