Black Like Me

by John Howard Griffin | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 0451192036 Global Overview for this book
Registered by daughterofcokie of Chula Vista, California USA on 3/29/2004
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by daughterofcokie from Chula Vista, California USA on Monday, March 29, 2004
I haven't read this book but I would like to someday.

Here's the description: "The Deep South of the late 50's was another country: a land of lynchings, segeragated lunch counters, whites-only restrooms, and a color line etched in blood across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. White journalist John Howard Griffin, working for a black-owned magazine Sepia, decided to cross that line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man.

"What happened to John Howard Griffin - from the outside and within himself - as he made his way through the segregated Deep South is recorded in this searing work of nonfiction. Educated and soft-spoken John Howard Griffin changed only the color of his skin. It was enough to make him hated ... enough to nearly get him killed. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity every American must read."

It sounds great!

Journal Entry 2 by Crowyhead from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Just received this in the mail -- I'm looking forward to reading it!

Condition: This is a mass market paperback that's seen better days; I'm probably going to tape the spine before I send it out into the world again. Still totally readable, though, which is what's important. :)

Journal Entry 3 by Crowyhead from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, July 14, 2004
This is a really fascinating book. The most interesting part, to me, was the section wherein Griffin describes the reaction people in his town had to his writing about his experiences. It is almost as if by passing as black, Griffin BECAME black in his neighbors' minds, but worse -- to them it was as if he was a traitor to his own race. It's quite depressing, but also fascinating. The book made me wonder whether a similar experiment could be undertaken today; for some reason, it seems as though it would be harder for Griffin to pass in the same way, but I may be wrong.

Journal Entry 4 by Crowyhead from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, September 2, 2005
Donated to Second Mile Center thrift store, 45th & Locust, Philadelphia PA.

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