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Cover of Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

Black Like Me

  • 189 pages · about 3 hours
  • First published 1961
  • 43 editions

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1 About this book

Publisher's description: Studs Terkel tells us in his Foreword to the definitive Griffin Estate Edition of Black Like Me: "This is a contemporary book, you bet." Indeed, Black Like Me remains required reading in thousands of high schools and colleges for this very reason.

Regardless of how much progress has been made in eliminating outright racism from American life, Black Like Me endures as a great human and humanitarian document.

In our era, when "international" terrorism is most often defined in terms of a single ethnic designation and a single religion, we need to be reminded that America has been blinded by fear and racial intolerance before. As John Lennon wrote, "Living is easy with eyes closed." Black Like Me is the story of a man who opened his eyes, and helped an entire nation to do likewise.

Good for readers who want: a true life story and history.

  • Biography
  • History
  • Race relations
  • African americans, biography
  • Southern states
  • Afro-Americans
  • Religion
  • Social conditions

2 About John Howard Griffin

1920–1980

John Howard Griffin (June 16, 1920 – September 9, 1980) was an American journalist and author from Texas who wrote about and championed racial equality. He is best known for his 1959 project to temporarily pass as a black man and journey through the Deep South in order to see life and segregation from the other side of the color line first-hand.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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