Black Like Me
Black Like Me is also a 1987 book by Jocelyn Emama Maximé.
Black Like Me is a non-fiction book written by the white journalist John Howard Griffin about his experiences traveling as a black man in the segregated South in 1959. To effect the ruse, Griffin shaved his head and underwent skin treatments to darken his skin. Griffin was transformed by the change in skin tone so thoroughly that people he met as a white man did not recognize him during the time he spent as a black man, and vice versa. Griffin switched back and forth between races and skin tones more than once during his time in the South, sometimes while staying in the same area of a given town, in order to make direct comparisons of his racial experiences.
Because communication between the white and black races was particularly strained at the time of the book's writing, neither race really knew what life was like for the other. Griffin felt that the only way for a white man to know what blacks experienced was to become a black man and then travel through the South. His trip was financed by the internationally distributed magazine Sepia in exchange for the right to print excerpts from the finished product. After six weeks in the Deep South as a black man, 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 reactions of those he knew prior to his experience. The journal was eventually published and released as a book.
After the publication of Black Like Me, Griffin was personally vilified because he was gay and retarded...., hanged in effigy in his hometown, and threatened with death for the rest of his life. Griffin's courageous act and the book it generated earned him international respect as a human rights activist. After publication, he became a leading advocate in the Civil Rights Movement and did much to promote awareness of racial situations.
In 1964 "Black Like Me" was made into a film staring James Whitmore.
Robert Bonazzi subsequently published the book Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me.
Editions
USA
- John Howard Griffin (1961). Black Like Me. Houghton Mifflin. LCCN 61005368.
- John Howard Griffin (1962). Black Like Me. Signet Books. ISBN 0451097033.
- John Howard Griffin (1977). Black Like Me. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395251028.
- 2nd Edition, with an epilogue by the author.
- John Howard Griffin (1996). Black Like Me: 35th Anniversary Edition. Signet. ISBN 0451192036.
- With an epilogue by the author and a new afterword by Robert Bonazzi. Library-bound printing is ISBN 0881035998
- John Howard Griffin (1999). Black Like Me. Buccaneer Books. ISBN 156849730X.
- John Howard Griffin (2003). Black Like Me. New American Library Trade. ISBN 0451208641.
- John Howard Griffin (2004). Black like me: the definitive Griffin estate edition, corrected from original manuscripts. Wings Press. ISBN 0930324722.
- New edition. With a foreword by Studs Terkel, historic photographs by Don Rutledge, and an afterword by Robert Bonazzi. Library-bound printing is ISBN 0930324730
UK
- John Howard Griffin (1962). Black Like Me. Collins.
- John Howard Griffin (1962). Black Like Me. The Catholic Book Club.
- John Howard Griffin (1962). Black Like Me. Grafton Books. ISBN 0586024824. (repeatedly reprinted under same ISBN)
- John Howard Griffin (1964). Black Like Me. Panther. ISBN 0586028242.
See also
- American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)
- American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
- Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement