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. Griffin’s 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 me—That 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 tenderlyBlack 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/black.like.me/