| On first learning the theme of Black Like Me, most people find it remarkable that a Southern white would change the color of his skin and become a black man, even for a few weeks. Was he motivated, they wonder, by curiosity a desire to experience as many sides of life as possible? Was it simply that he was paid very well for his account of his experiences as a black man? Or was this an extraordinary man one possessing a rare amount of compassion and courage who sincerely wished to understand and to communicate to other whites the true effects of their racism on the day-to-day life of blacks? |
| The details of John Howard Griffin's life make it hard to believe that he became a black man simply because of vulgar curiosity or a desire for money. In fact, the story of his life is that of a highly learned man who was able to overcome most of the prejudices ingrained in him by his Texas upbringing, and who became intensely dedicated to the cause of racial justice in a society which despised and threatened him for his efforts. |
| Griffin was born in Dallas, Texas, on June 16, 1920, and grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Under the influence of his mother, a concert pianist, he developed an early love of music which was to remain with him all his life. At sixteen, he went to France, where he completed his secondary education in 1938. Since Griffin had decided to become a psychiatrist, he began to study medicine and psychiatry at the Medical School of Tours, spending part of his time as an assistant to the director of an insane asylum in that city. But his involvement with music was too much a part of himself to be ignored, and his experiments with music as therapy for the insane led him to continue his study of musical composition, theory, and history. |
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