Black Like Me $14.00 $12.60

By Jennifer Ciotta

Black Like Me written by John Howard Griffin (New American Library 1960) is an enigma to the younger generations of the United States.  However, college students of the 1960's/70's researched and wrote term papers based on this same book.  Unfortunately, the popularity of Black Like Me has died throughout the decades, along with the memories of the struggle for civil rights in America.

John Howard Griffin, a trained journalist, shocked the nation as he underwent a racial transformation.  With the help of skin darkening medication, a sunlamp and black stain, Griffin morphed from a white Texan into a black man roaming through the Southern states of Mississippi and Louisiana.  Griffin then secured his identity by shaving his head and hands bald.  Yet the journalist did not change his clothes or his personality, keeping his "true" self.  He did not tell others he met along the way for fear of their safety, instead they were led to believe that Griffin was an everyday "Negro."

One of the most compelling sections of the book is how Griffin is horrified at the black face staring back at him in the mirror.  Throughout Black Like Me the author combines a dated diary of personal daily events and his own reflections on the situation with historical facts from the year 1959.  The style and tone work perfectly for the story that Griffin needed to tell--even his long monologues about civil rights seemed well-placed.  To read the book in 2007 Griffin's revelations are not so startling since society has been educated about the black man's struggle in the deep South through television, movies and books.  However, what still is revolutionary is discovering the actual details of the seven-week experiment itself, and the punishment Griffin endured from his white peers for committing to such a radical test and stating the facts so unapologetically in the racially-divided 1950's/60's.

John Howard Griffin was an oustanding leader in the Civil Rights Movement.  As an author, he takes the reader inside the "Negro" world to reveal the hardships of an oppressed people.  It is a work of literature that should still be revered today, reminding the younger generation of the evils, which nearly destroyed American society.  John Howard Griffin serves as a true pioneer not only in black equality, but also in expert journalism and sincere autobiographical writing.