Black Like Me 



John Howard Griffin was a journalist and a specialist on race 
issues.  After publication, he became a leading advocate in the Civil 
Rights Movement and did much to promote awareness of the racial situations 
and pass legislature.  He was middle aged and living in Mansfield, Texas 
at the time of publication in 1960.  His desire to know if Southern whites 
were racist against the Negro population of the Deep South, or if they 
really judged people based on the individual's personality as they said 
they prompted him to cross the color line and write Black Like Me.  Since 
communication between the white and African American races did not exist, 
neither race really knew what it was like for the other.  Due to this, 
Griffin felt the only way to know the truth was to become a black man and 
travel through the South.  His trip was financed by the internationally 
distributed Negro magazine Sepia in exchange for the right to print 
excerpts from the finished product.  After three weeks in the Deep South 
as a black man John Howard Griffin produced a 188-page journal covering 
his transition into the black race, his travels and experiences in the 
South, the shift back into white society, and the reaction of those he 
knew prior his experonce the book was published and released. 
        John Howard Griffin began this novel as a white man on October 28, 
1959 and became a black man (with the help of a noted dermatologist) on 
November 7.  He entered black society in New Orleans through his contact 
Sterling, a shoe shine boy that he had met in the days prior to the 
medication taking full effect.  Griffin stayed with Sterling at the shine 
stand for a few days to become assimilated into the society and to learn 
more about the attitude and mindset of the common black man.  After one 
week of trying to find work other than menial labor, he left to travel 
throughout the Southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. 
        November 14, the day he decided to leave, was the day after the 
Mississippi jury refused to indict or consider the evidence in the Mack 
Parker kidnap-lynch murder case.  He decided to go into the heart of 
Mississippi, the Southern state most feared by blacks of that time, just 
to see if it really did have the "wonderful relationship" with their 
Negroes that they said they did.  What he found in Hattiesburg was tension 
in the state so apparent and thick that it scared him to death.  One of 
the reasons for this could be attributed to the Parker case decision 
because the trial took place not far from Hattiesburg.  He knew it was a 
threat to his life if he remained because he was not a true Negro and did 
not know the proper way to conduct himself in the present situation. 
Griffin requested that one of his friends help him leave the state as soon 
as possible.  P.D. East, Griffin's friend, was more than willing to help 
his friend out of the dangerous situation that he had gotten himself into 
and back to New Orleans. 
        From New Orleans, traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi and began hitch 
hiking toward Mobile, Alabama.  Griffin found that men would not pick him 
up in the day nearly as often as they would at night.  One of the reasons 
being that the darkness of night is a protection of sorts and the white 
men would let their defenses down.  Also, they would not have to be afraid 
of someone they knew seeing them with a Negro in their car.  But the main 
reason was of the stereotypes many of these men had of Negroes, that they 
were more sexually active, knew more about sex, had larger genitalia, and 
fewer morals and therefore would discuss these things with them.  Many of 
the whites that offered Griffin rides would become angry and let him out 
when he would not discuss his sex life with them.  One man was amazed to 
find a Negro who spoke intelligently and tried to explain the fallacies 
behind the stereotypes and what the problem with Negro society was. 
        Many Negroes he encountered on his journey through the Deep South 
were very kind and opened their hearts and homes to him.  One example of 
this is when Griffin asked an elderly Negro where he might find lodging, 
the man offered to share his own bed with him.  Another instance was when 
Griffin was stranded somewhere between Mobile and Montgomery and a black 
man offered him lodging at his home.  The man's home was a two-room shack 
that housed six members of his family, but he accepted John into his home 
and refused any money for the trouble saying that "he'd brought more than 
he'd taken." 
        In Montgomery, Alabama, Griffin decided it was time for him to 
reenter white society, but he also wanted to gain a knowledge of the area 
as a black man.  So, he devised the technique of covering an area as a 
black and then returning the following day as a white.  What he found was, 
as a black he would receive the "hate stare" from whites and be treated 
with every courtesy by the black community.  As a white, it would be the 
exact opposite, he would get the "hate stare" from blacks and be treated 
wonderfully by the same people who despised him the previous day. 
        After a few days of zigzagging across the color line, Griffin 
decided that he had enough material from his journal to create a book and 
enough experience as a black man so he reverted permanently into white 
society.  Crossing over into the white world was unsettling to Griffin, if 
only because of the way he was treated by the same people who despised him 
previously due to his pigmentation.  The sudden ability to walk into any 
establishment and not be refused service was also a shock after having to 
search for common conveniences days before. 
        After returning to his hometown of Mansfield, Texas Griffin was 
not widely accepted back into the community he once knew.  Many of the 
residents of the city were racists, therefore they considered him one of 
the 'niggers.' The racists even went as far as to hang Griffin in effigy 
from the town's stop light one morning.  This prompted him and his family 
to leave the area until the situation considerably calmed down. 
        Griffin was interviewed by various television and radio hosts as 
well as magazine and newspapermen after the book was made public.  His 
main objective was to educate the public of the situation in the South and 
people couldn't help but hear about it.  Wether or not they accepted the 
information was not up to Griffin, but he did his best to make the 
knowledge available. 
        This book relates to American history because it takes the reader 
into the Deep South before the Civil Rights Movements took hold and shows 
what it was like to be black.  In the Preface, the author states "I could 
have been a Jew in Germany, a Mexican in a number of states, or a member 
of any 'inferior' group.  Only the details would have differed.  The story 
would be the same."  The details he mentioned were he being black and in 
the South, and the story is of hatred and racism directed toward him and 
others like him on account of those details.  The account he related 
showed America and the world that race relations in the South was not the 
pretty picture it was painted as.  Instead, he showed the daily struggle 
of the blacks to survive. 
        Griffin's bias is that white Southern Americans of that period 
were racist toward the African American population.  The only thing 
altered from before he entered New Orleans to after was his appearance. 
He dyed his skin a very dark brown and shaved his head, his clothing, 
speech patterns, and references had not changed and every question was 
answered truthfully.  If people did judge others by their qualities and 
qualifications, his time in the Deep South should have been fairly 
uneventful.  Instead, there were daily quests to find rest-room 
facilities, restaurants, stores, and various other 'conveniences' that he 
took advantage of before he crossed the color line.  During his stay in 
New Orleans, blacks were forced to use specific facilities designated for 
them and they were usually few and far between.  Other than the Greyhound 
station or other public buildings that blacks were allowed to enter, there 
were no facilities that were at par with the ones the whites had access 
to.  His now black skin also prevented him from entering any store and 
purchasing something to drink, instead he would have to find a Negro Cafe. 
These Cafes were not nearly as numerous as the many places the lowliest 
white could acquire a drink.  The color of his skin also prevented him 
from gaining anything other than menial labor job, although his 
qualifications could easily get him any number of positions if he were 
white. 
        ". . . I walked toward Brennan's, one of New Orleans' famed 
restaurants . . . I stopped to study the menu . . . realizing that a few 
days earlier I could have gone in an ordered anything on the menu.  But 
now, though I was the same person with the same appetite . . . 
appreciation . . . and wallet, no power on earth could get me inside this 
place for a meal.  I recalled hearing some Negro say, 'You can live here 
all your life, but you'll never get inside one of the great restaurants 
except as a kitchen boy.'" 
        The above passage represents just one of many instances where he 
was barred from entering an establishment solely based on his 
pigmentation.  As stated before, Negroes were not permitted to enter many 
restaurants, but libraries, museums, concert halls, and other culturally 
enhancing places were also barred to him even though there was no formal 
law against them entering.  The many stereotypes of blacks being 
intellectually inferior just made it easier to deny them access because 
they did not have the mental capacities to appreciate it.  It became 
apparent to Griffin that because the black population was widely 
uneducated, they would never be able to succeed in life.  One of the 
things inhibiting their education was the inferior quality of schools and 
the inability to enter establishments such as libraries and museums.  The 
whites, usually knew this and used it to their advantage to keep the black 
population subordinate. 
  



Word Count: 1761 