Black Like Me

1
Black Like Me

• by John Howard Griffin

2
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

3
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)

4
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
5
John Howard Griffin (cont.)

• Regained (inexplicably) his eyesight in 1957

6
John Howard Griffin (cont.)

• Official biographer of Thomas Merton

7
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)

8
Griffins Motivation (for Black Like Me)
9
The Inspiration for the Title

• Dreams (Langston Hughes)
• Hold fast to dreams For if dreams dieLife is a
  broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.
• Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a
  barren fieldFrozen with snow.

Dream Variations (Langston Hughes) To fling my
arms wideIn some place of the sun,To whirl and
to danceTill the white day is done.Then rest at
cool eveningBeneath a tall treeWhile night
comes on gently,      Dark like meThat is my
dream! To fling my arms wideIn 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.
10
The Transformation
11
Griffin Undercover
12
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/blac
k.like.me/