Black Like Me Essay Research Paper John

Black Like Me Essay, Research Paper

John Howard Griffin was a journalist and a specialist on race

issues. After publication, he became a leading advocate in the Civil

Rights Movement and did much to promote awareness of the racial situations

and pass legislature. He was middle aged and living in Mansfield, Texas

at the time of publication in 1960. His desire to know if Southern whites

were racist against the Negro population of the Deep South, or if they

really judged people based on the individual’s personality as they said

they prompted him to cross the color line and write Black Like Me. Since

communication between the white and African American races did not exist,

neither race really knew what it was like for the other. Due to this,

Griffin felt the only way to know the truth was to become a black man and

travel through the South. His trip was financed by the internationally

distributed Negro magazine Sepia in exchange for the right to print

excerpts from the finished product. After three weeks in the Deep South

as a black man John Howard Griffin produced a 188-page journal covering

his transition into the black race, his travels and experiences in the

South, the shift back into white society, and the reaction of those he

knew prior his experonce the book was published and released.

John Howard Griffin began this novel as a white man on October 28,

1959 and became a black man (with the help of a noted dermatologist) on

November 7. He entered black society in New Orleans through his contact

Sterling, a shoe shine boy that he had met in the days prior to the

medication taking full effect. Griffin stayed with Sterling at the shine

stand for a few days to become assimilated into the society and to learn

more about the attitude and mindset of the common black man. After one

week of trying to find work other than menial labor, he left to travel

throughout the Southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas.

November 14, the day he decided to leave, was the day after the

Mississippi jury refused to indict or consider the evidence in the Mack

Parker kidnap-lynch murder case. He decided to go into the heart of

Mississippi, the Southern state most feared by blacks of that time, just

to see if it really did have the “wonderful relationship” with their

Negroes that they said they did. What he found in Hattiesburg was tension

in the state so apparent and thick that it scared him to death. One of

the reasons for this could be attributed to the Parker case decision

because the trial took place not far from Hattiesburg. He knew it was a

threat to his life if he remained because he was not a true Negro and did

not know the proper way to conduct himself in the present situation.

Griffin requested that one of his friends help him leave the state as soon

as possible. P.D. East, Griffin’s friend, was more than willing to help

his friend out of the dangerous situation that he had gotten himself into

and back to New Orleans.

From New Orleans, traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi and began hitch

hiking toward Mobile, Alabama. Griffin found that men would not pick him

up in the day nearly as often as they would at night. One of the reasons

being that the darkness of night is a protection of sorts and the white

men would let their defenses down. Also, they would not have to be afraid

of someone they knew seeing them with a Negro in their car. But the main

reason was of the stereotypes many of these men had of Negroes, that they

were more sexually active, knew more about sex, had larger genitalia, and

fewer morals and therefore would discuss these things with them. Many of

the whites that offered Griffin rides would become angry and let him out

when he would not discuss his sex life with them. One man was amazed to

find a Negro who spoke intelligently and tried to explain the fallacies

behind the stereotypes and what the problem with Negro society was.

Many Negroes he encountered on his journey through the Deep South

were very kind and opened their hearts and homes to him. One example of

this is when Griffin asked an elderly Negro where he might find lodging,

the man offered to share his own bed with him. Another instance was when

Griffin was stranded somewhere between Mobile and Montgomery and a black

man offered him lodging at his home. The man’s home was a two-room shack

that housed six members of his family, but he accepted John into his home

and refused any money for the trouble saying that “he’d brought more than

he’d taken.”

In Montgomery, Alabama, Griffin decided it was time for him to

reenter white society, but he also wanted to gain a knowledge of the area

as a black man. So, he devised the technique of covering an area as a

black and then returning the following day as a white. What he found was,

as a black he would receive the “h

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать