Black Like Me has impacted millions of readers in the United States, around the world, and over the decades with its profound exploration of humanity and identity under the pressure of racial prejudice. The sincere and scathing narrative documents the true story of a white man’s journey to answer questions of race and society the only way he could -- through a transformation into a black man himself. Prior to writing the novel, journalist John Howard Griffin served both as a medic smuggling Jews from France to England and as a pilot in the Pacific theater. After three years, he was wounded, and lost his vision in an accident. During the ten years of blindness before he regained his sight, he experienced prejudice toward his handicap and realized the injustice and pointlessness of racism; when blind, Griffin realized “he can only see the heart and intelligence of a man, and nothing in these things indicates in the slightest whether a man is black or white.” This sentiment encouraged him to pursue racial and societal inquiries, and led to Black Like Me.
In 1959, the start of the novel, Griffin visits a dermatologist to dye his skin a dark pigment. As he ventures from his safe position in society, he is confronted with surprisingly wrathful racism and prejudice, complex as that from fellow dark-skinned people and simple as “the hate stare” from a white woman in the bus station; also, he confronts his own previously unconscious racism. Despite retaining his credentials and mannerisms, Griffin is treated as a second class citizen in each state in the Deep South he travels to. With his dual view, he realizes the disparity between the two racial sects, and the hopelessness of reconciliation and mutual respect in society’s current approach.
Once published, the account received praise and backlash, at once an instant bestseller and a cause for Griffin to uproot his family and relocate to the safety of Mexico. He lectured around the country, and worked with people such as Martin Luther King Jr. His raw social critique inspired social change and empathy, and remains a modern classic relevant today and for generations to come.
