In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, today's focus is on John Howard Griffin's book, "Black Like Me." This is Griffin's first person account, first published in the 1960s, of what life was like then for black people in the Deep South. While the synopsis seems rather straight forward, there is a catch: Griffin is in fact a white man.
An American journalist living in Dallas, Texas, Griffin focused his writing on racial equality, or the lack thereof. It was this specialized field that inspired Griffin to pursue his daring act of becoming a Negro for six weeks. This feat was achieved by shaving his head and then undergoing various medical treatments to darken his skin. When his transformation was accomplished, Griffin set out on the town in New Orleans, where he first experienced the uncomfortable pangs of racism almost immediately.
Throughout his journey through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, Griffin felt that he was treated worse than a second-class citizen and that everything was arranged to remind him, and other blacks, of that. Work other than menial labor was not to be had; available housing was pathetic and filthy; any conveniences, like public restrooms, were inconvenient and out of the way; and while some people were pleasant, others treated blacks with an open hostility that was shocking. And when all was said and done and his experience published, people from Griffin's own town turned on him, thinking it obscene that he dare try to become one of "them." Griffin and his family fled to Mexico.
Winner of the 1962 Saturday Review Anisfield-Wolf Award, "Black Like Me" is an educational must-read that should be reviewed and pondered, particularly on a day like today. As we remember the past--the deeds of great men like Martin Luther King, Jr.--and reflect on our part in this world, dip into history with a copy of Griffin's first-hand report, and work for a better tomorrow. Happy reading.
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