Baldwin left the United States in part to escape the racial climate of the day. He returned only from time to time and then relatively briefly. The racial climate like in the US in the 1950s was rife with segregation and many forms of legal oppression, which were accompanied by violence and discrimination against persons of color. Both legal and illegal forms of oppression existed and were tolerated across the US in the mid-20th century. Many of these oppressive forms had existed for decades, and some had been present since the post-Reconstruction Era. Black and white people were separated on buses, in schools, and in neighborhoods. The civil rights movement, which opposed these forms of oppression through nonviolent direct action, began around the time Baldwin’s piece was published. Baldwin’s account of race in the US became important to the civil rights movement.

The 1950s were a time of affluence for many white Americans, who were represented on TV shows like I Love Lucy. By contrast, many Black people had served in World War II and were dismayed on returning to the US to find that the freedom for which they had been fighting was yet to materialize in their home country.