We just came across this film, recently remastered and digitized, which was shot as part of a public television series called "Take This Hammer" for KQED back in 1963, exploring race relations and feelings of disenfranchisement among African American youths in northern cities at the outset of the civil rights movement. They start with San Francisco, "with its widely advertised liberal and cosmopolitan traditions," and this clip features author James Baldwin exploring the Bayview and Fillmore, and interviewing people on the street and in the community.
The biggest issue being discusses is unemployment, and the inequality of employment opportunities despite the fact that all kids, white, black, and otherwise, were getting the same, integrated public education.
As one man says:
"Let me tell you about San Francisco. The white man is not taking advantage of you out in public like they doing down in Birmingham. But he's killing you with that pencil and paper, brother. When you go and look for a job, can you get a job?"
And, in the video, Baldwin tries to encourage a young man by saying, "There will be a Negro president of this country but it will not be the country that we are sitting in now."
Also, around the 25-minute mark, Baldwin goes into an interesting monologue about how developers and the "profit motive" were taking over cities like New York and San Francisco, and how damaging it was to all children to "grow up believing that it's more important to make a profit than to be a man."
