Howard Griffin Black Like Me

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John Howard Griffin, an American author, photographer and journalist, was best known for his six-week long diary of a journey into oblivion, Black Like Me (1961). He was born the second son of John Walter and Lena May on June 16, 1920 in Mansfield, Texas.
Griffin had pondered for years how a white man must change in order to pass as a Negro, and in November 1959, he finally decided to test this, exposing himself to ultraviolet lights and ingesting pigmentation pills to darken his skin. After five days, the transformation was complete, and Griffin was ready to venture into “oblivion”.

Griffin attended R. L. Paschal High School until the age of 15, when he left America in search of a classical education.
After responding to a newspaper advertisement, Griffin and his family were surprised to find that he had been offered a scholarship at the boys’ private school in France, Lycée Descartes. Although he didn’t speak any French, Griffin persuaded his parents to let him go.
Being brought up with racist ideology in Texas, he was surprised to see white students having lunch with blacks, and began to question the racial segregation being practised back in southern states of the U.S.A.
Griffin later studied French and literature at the University of Poitiers and then medicine at the École de Médecine, as well as studying as a trainee under the direction of Dr. Pierre Fromenty at the Asylum of Tours (France), conducting experiments on the use of music as therapy for criminally insane persons.
Griffin’s experience of non-racism in France helped him discover the great racial hatred displayed in the United States of America, and inspired a commitment in him to understand racism.

At the age of 19, Griffin served as a medic in the underg...

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...ved the Saturday Review Anisfield Wolf Award for Black Like Me, the Christian Culture Series Award, as well as receiving two honorary doctorates from universities.
Some of his quotes include “He who is less than just is less than a man.”; “How can you render the duties of justice to men when they may destroy you?”; and “Every fool in error can find a passage of scripture to back him up.”

John Howard Griffin was courageous to dare face racial discrimination deliberately. He wrote a number of other books on racial issues. He was often called upon to lecture about racism and its impact, and he continued to be a controversial figure. Griffin died in September, 1980, at the age of 60 from complications of diabetes and other health issues, but he is still remembered for his books, especially Black Like Me (1961), the story of his six weeks’ worth of discrimination.

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