Black Like Me
by John Howard Griffin
John Howard Griffin

Born in 1920 in Dallas, Texas

Mother: classically trained pianist and music
teacher, father: tenor and radio personality

Left the U.S. at age 15 to pursue classical
studies


Studied French and literature at the Univ. of
Poitiers

Studied medieval music (specialized in Gregorian
chant) at the Conservatoire de Fontainebluau

Studied medicine at the Ecole de Medicine

Conducted experiments in the use of music
therapy for the criminal insane
Worked as a medic in the French Resistance
army, evacuating Austrian Jews
John Howard Griffin (cont.)

Served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the South
Pacific
 Decorated for bravery
 Disabled in the fighting (lost all sight in 1946)
John Howard Griffin (cont.)

Wrote several novels while blind; started a 20-volume
journal

Converted to Catholicism in 1952
Man in the Mirror:
John Howard Griffin
and the Story of
Black Like Me by
Robert Bonazzi
John Howard Griffin (cont.)

Regained (inexplicably) his eyesight in 1957
John Howard Griffin (cont.)

Official biographer of Thomas Merton
John Howard Griffin (cont.)

Suffered from a variety of ailments,
especially ostiomyelititis (an inflammation
and deterioration of the bone marrow)

Had multiple surgeries on his feet, several
heart attacks, a stroke, and eventually the
amputation of one of his legs

Lived with significant pain for last 10 years

Died in 1980 from complications relating to
Diabetes (according to his wife, “he died
from everything”)
Griffin’s Motivation (for Black Like Me)
The Inspiration for the Title
Dreams (Langston Hughes)
Dream Variations (Langston Hughes)
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me—
That is my dream!
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening . . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
The Transformation
Griffin Undercover
The Black response
 Mostly positive, and he worked closely with Martin Luther King and
other prominent Black civil rights leaders into the 1970s, including a
pact with King and Dick Gregory in Atlanta that since violent death
seemed inevitable, they would ignore their fears and fight on for racial
justice. (Man in the Mirror, pg. 146)
 But did have some critics:

"It is impossible for a white man to truly know the anguish, the
degradation ... which gnaw at the soul of the Negro in America.
Empathy, however sharp or genuine or sincere, cannot put a white
man in the Negro's place." (unnamed black journalist after Griffin's
work appeared)

In his autobiography, Malcolm X wrote about Griffin: "If it was a
frightening experience for him as nothing but a make-believe Negro
for 66 days, then you think about what real Negroes in America
have gone through for 400 years."
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/books/news/01/11/black.like.me/