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| Paperback cover for 20th printing |
John Howard Griffin (born June 16,
1920) is famous for doing something that today sounds almost like a Candid
Camera stunt: in 1959 he shaved his head and dyed his skin dark brown and then
went through the South wearing a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase. He
wondered if folks, simply on the basis of his skin color, would perceive him as
a "Negro." And if the good citizens down there in New Orleans,
Hattiesburg, Biloxi, and Montgomery did think he was a Negro, how would they
treat him?
As
you might imagine, not well. Jim Crow buses. "Colored" drinking
fountains. "Whites Only" bathrooms, restaurants, churches, sidewalks,
movie seats, hotels, park benches, and service. Obey or die. Fellow Negroes,
seeing how confused and naive he was about southern customs, did all they could
to shield this traveling stranger. One thing they could not protect him from,
however, was the notorious "hate stare" beamed at him every time he said
hello and dared to look at a white person.
Thirty
days was about all Griffin could stand. The constant fear and disrespect put a
rage in him he doubted he could control. He let the dye wear off and resumed
his white identity. He'd gathered plenty of data from his semi-scientific
experiment. He published his first reports in Sepia magazine, his sponsor.
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| Paperback cover for the non-subtle reader |
Clamor
and furor soon followed. Time magazine did a piece about him. He was
interviewed on the Mike Wallace and Dave Garroway TVshows. His book, "Black
Like Me," was published in 1961 and became a best seller. Also, a
(mediocre) movie was released in 1964.
Now
entrenched in the curriculum of many high schools and colleges, "Black
Like Me" is considered to be a valuable tool for teaching American history
and encouraging students to develop empathy for persons of color.
African-Americans, by and large, see the book as a good book for white people
to read. They're already living the experience, they say, so it's not news to them.
Nonetheless, it has not been out of print since.
You
have to wonder, though, what kind of man undertakes such an experiment? He was
not a college prankster. He was 39-years-old, married, with children. A Texan.
Some clues can be found in his past.
As
a Texas teen he was awarded a scholarship to study music and literature in
France, where he graduated from Poitiers University. Germany invaded France
while he was there. Griffin took a quick study of medicine and joined the
French Resistance as a medic at the French seaport of Saint-Nazaire. While
there he also helped smuggle Austrian Jews to safety. Informed that the Nazis had
put his name on their Kill List, he escaped back to America. In the States he
immediately joined the Army Air Force and served for 39 months in the South
Pacific. On one of his assignments he served as the only Caucasian on the
Solomon Islands, charged with studying local culture. On his next assignment he
was in combat when an explosion blinded him.
Back
in the states, he began writing, despite his visual handicap.In 1952 he
converted to Catholicism and became a lay Carmelite. In 1953 he married and
fathered four children. In 1957 his vision suddenly, spontaneously, returned.
Intensely philosophical and spiritual by now, he decided to undertake his
experiment with skin color. After his book was published, praise and controversy
followed. He was even lynched in effigy. In 1964, Griffin, along with John F.
Kennedy was awarded a Pacem in Terris Peace
and Freedom Award by the Davenport (Iowa) Catholic Interracial Council.
Griffin's book will likely remain a classic of American
sociological
literature.
Strangely
though, John Howard Griffin was not the first American journalist to darken his
skin and travel though the South to write about Jim Crow. For years, Ray
Sprigle, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had
worn disguises and worked undercover, using the pseudonym James Crawford. He'd
infiltrated coal mines, black market meat sellers, and state mental hospitals.
In 1948, after browning his skin, he journeyed through Florida, Georgia and the
Mississippi Delta. His series was titled, "I was a Negro in the South for
30 Days," and it ran in the Post-Gazette for 21 days. Throughout the
series he wrote that, a black man's, "rights of citizenship ran only as
far as the nearest white man said they did." The series was syndicated to
15 other newspapers, but appeared not at all in the South. In 1949 a book
version of his experiences was published under the title, "In the Land of
Jim Crow."
So,
why is Griffin's book highly touted and Sprigle's hardly known? Several factors
seem to be at work. For one, the United States was not ready to discuss racial
prejudice, especially of the legal kind, in 1949. For another, television had
not emerged as a means of publicizing an event or trend or idea. Griffin's
sales were boosted enormously by the Time magazine story and his Dave Garroway
& Mike Wallace TV show appearances.
Furthermore,
though Sprigle's book is the superior work of journalism, compared to Griffin's,
the latter's work reads like a novel or memoir. It is easier to identify with,
since anyone can imagine what it might be like to look in the mirror and be
alienated from his own image. Even its title, "Black like Me," provokes
curiosity in a way that the objective-sounding "In the Land of Jim Crow"
does not.
So,
two men, similar journeys, similar tactics, similar trials, but one's book is
still read today and the other's is a historical footnote. Sprigle was ahead of
his time, but Griffin caught the rising wave of the future.
