"Sonny’s Blues" (1957) is a short story by James Baldwin. It later appeared in the 1965 short story collection, Going to Meet the Man. The narrator reads about his brother's being caught in heroin-peddling action in the newspaper.

He goes through his day's work as a teacher, and is met by a friend of his brother's, who says they will eventually release him but he will be alone. Though the narrator originally says that he does not want contact with Sonny, he does eventually send him a letter in rehab. He only decides to write the letter after his daughter Gracie died of polio.

Sonny soon sends a letter back, promising to come out to Harlem and see him. After this, the two send letters back and forth while Sonny is still in rehab, and once he is released, he immediately goes to meet the narrator in Harlem. The narrator then thinks back to his childhood in Harlem.

His mother had told him to watch over his brother, as the latter shared the same sense of 'privacy' as his father, which meant that they couldn't make the grade unaided. She recounts the way his father's brother was killed by whites running over him with their car, and how she had deemed it taboo for the children. After their mother's death, the narrator and Sonny sit alone in their kitchen where the narrator, remembering the guidance of his mother, attempts to ask his brother what he wants to do with his life.

He tells him he wants to become a jazz musician: a piano player. A little later, it is found out that he has been skipping school and playing jazz instead.

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