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.
