There is a reference in James Baldwin's "If Beale St. Could Talk" (on
page 209)of which I can't find the origin. The line is "Is there not
one righteous among them?"  Can you find the source?

Hello killerbees-ga,

There are candidates in Ecclesiastes 7:20 (sometimes written "There is
not a righteous man on earth") and the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 9:11
("... there were none righteous among them ...").  However, I think
that the strongest candidate (given that Baldwin was not Mormon, and
given the wording) is Romans 3:10 --

"There is none righteous, no, not one."

There are variations on the verses from Romans and Ecclesiastes, so I
am reluctant to provide a specific citation for them.  The following
searches indicate the different variations:

'Searched the web for "righteous no" romans'
Google
://www.google.com/search?q=%22righteous+no%22+romans&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&filter=0

'Searched the web for "not a righteous" ecclesiastes'
Google
://www.google.com/search?q=%22not+a+righteous%22+ecclesiastes+&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&as_qdr=all&filter=0

'Searched the web for "no righteous" ecclesiastes'
Google
://www.google.com/search?q=%22no+righteous%22+ecclesiastes+&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&as_qdr=all&filter=0

The verse in the Book of Mormon is found here:

"Third Nephi - Chapter 9"
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
http://scriptures.lds.org/3_ne/9

- justaskscott-ga


Search strategy:

Searched for variations on and pieces of "is there not one righteous
among them"