Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5.0 stars - Black Like Me tells the story of a Texas journalist, who, disturbed by the conditions he sees around him, decides to look at the problems through the lens of those who live them every day, by turning his skin black and living in the black community. Nothing prepares him for the demoralizing, dehumanizing experience he has, where one day he is a respected man and the next he fears for his life. But Griffin doesn't make this about himself, and afterwards he is clear that he does not speak for the black community, but it cannot be denied that the book had a profound effect on America, coming at what would be the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. For many years he traveled America giving lectures, going to troubled cities, but always saying to the city leadership - why are you asking me these questions, you have so many black leaders among you - ask them!
The story of the 6 weeks he spent in New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama and Atlanta is disturbing and eye-opening. He feared for his life from the moment he crossed into Mississippi until he left it, under cover of darkness a few days later, arriving during a time when lynchings were tacitly approved, when a jury refused to convict members of the mob who murdered Mack Charles Parker.
The story of John Howard Griffin is in itself fascinating, from his wartime experience rescuing children from the Nazis, his temporary blindness, his deep Catholic faith and his experience writing the book and afterwards. In the Afterword, Robert Bonazzi, a Griffin scholar, writes fifty years later, giving us further insight to the author and the book itself.
The most haunting part for me is viewing this book in the context of the Civil Rights movement and the part it played, and seeing that almost 60 years later, it is still relevant and many of the same issues are being played out in city after city across the country to this day.

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