Black Like Me: 50th Anniversary Edition

I recalled this title recently from my high school years of many decades ago. In the current time, it was as powerful now as I recalled it to be. Truly a gut-wrenching classic on experiencing unethical discrimination.

This book's effect on the civil rights movement of the 60's was profound. I work in a similar field, with the poverty stricken ethnic community of my area, and it showed me how we hide our feelings about cultural difference now, but I think they are still there. I was very surprised that the experiment only lasted a month, but in reading, I realized he had great difficulty emotionally coping with the whole experience of being black before the civil rights act was passed. I wonder what the experience would hold today...

Excellent true story! Have read twice in my life--in college many years ago and again last month, 40 yrs later. It was even more meaningful the second time but sad that more hasn't changed in many ways!

It's an interesting read with different viewpoints. It comments on a controversial time in United States history, but it is a good commentary and it offers an inside look into something that few have the experience to know.

This was about a brave and very revealing role taken on at a very crucial part/time in the 20th century. It really help me see things from a totally different perspective . . . showed aspects I never even considered before!

this book is revolutionary! absolutely recomend this to everyone! i believe this should be a must read in all high schools. this book has opened up th eyes of many and will continue to do so for centuries to come!

I remember reading this in college and I recommended it to my granddaughter as it was on the list for high school reading. We watched the Cesar Chavez movie last month and now she read this story. It is a real eye opener to introduce her to past race relations in our country.

This book gives a fantastic insight into the attitudes of the races in America in the 1950's. It is a grim view into the darkness of racism that seems to plague the human race. Despite the removal of formal, institutionalised racism it is evident that such behavior still exists.

Although I consider racism and predjudice to be sinful and thus reject it, this book really showed me that I have much to consider still in regards to the I-thou dynamic. In other words it is eye opening'

The was required reading in the past. I think it should continue to be so. Especially today. So many people have forgotten what it is like to walk in someone else's shoes. Rev. Griffin does that and made history back in the 1960's for doing so.

I find it especially disturbing that one can recognize the stage set up for the war on racial integration disguised as war on drugs. The southern resistance to the integration from the 60's is a crucial part of how the justice system targets the racial minorities today and yet no one seems to recognize it or cares about it enough to do something about it.

A must read for everyone!
John H. Griffin, a white journalist, begins a personal journey throughout the segregated south in the 1950’s to learn what it means to be Negro through the eyes of a “black” man. Throughout his journey Griffin witnesses first hand the discrimination by his white brothers and that segregation was most definitely not equal.

This is a powerful book that is so appropriate now in helping Americans better understand where we have been . . . and should be in our battle to improve the lot of both black and white citizens to the point that we will all be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin.

Having read this book many years ago, it was somewhat depressing to again experience the racism of our past, yet inspirational to read the heroic journey into blackness by the author. The thing we have to remember is the author knew he could always return to the safety of the White insider class. Henry

Amazing that this occurred such a short time ago! Griffin opens your eyes to the atrocities against the blacks as they struggled for basic, human respect and rights. Too many individuals made bad choices; too few individuals spoke up for these oppressed people.

The story of John Howard Griffin's foray into the black community in 1959 still holds as much insight into white racism as it did when it came out 50+ years ago. Griffin's literary style takes the reader on the journey with him, and let's the reader feel the burn of discriminating, demoralizing treatment. It is an indictment against every person that prejudges another based on their appearance.

I remember reading this book in 5th grade and didn't like it much. I thought it was boring. But recently I bought this book for my niece after telling her about it. She was very eager to read it. I guess she likes the book better than I did. She's currently in the 8th grade.

I read Black Like Me in college, and it summarized all that I knew about the deep south, and southern resistance to letting black people live their lives in American freedom. I reread the book last year, and put it on my reading list for a social psychology course. The students who read it were stunned with the story, and with the writers bravery. I recommend it highly.