Griffin - Black Like Me

K nown primarily as the author of the modern classic. Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin (1920-1980) was a true Renaissance man. He fought in the French Resistance and served in the Army-Air Force in the South Pacific during World War II. Griffin became an acclaimed novelist and essayist, a remarkable portrait photographer and a musicologist recognized as an expert on Gregorian Chant.

On October 28, 1959, John Howard Griffin dyed himself black and began an odyssey of discover] through the segregated Deep South. The result was Black Like Me. arguably the single most important documentation of 20th century American racism ever written.

Because of Black Like Me, Ggiffin was personally vilified, hanged in effigy in his hometown, threatened with death, and as late as 1975 severely beaten by the KKK. Griffins courageous act and the book it generated earned him international respect as ha human rights activist. griffin worked with Martin Luther King, Dick Gregory, Saul Alinsky, and NAACP Director Roy Wilkins throughout the Civil Rights era. He taught at the University of peace with Nobel Peace Laureate Father Dominique Pire, and delivered more than a thousand lectures in Europe, Canada and the US.

Earlier, during a decade of blindness (1947-1957), Griffin wrote nobels. his 1952 bestseller, The Devil Rides Outside, was a test case in a controversial trial before the US Supreme Court that resulted in a landmark decision against censorship. Two of his most important books have been published posthumously as part of a growing revival of interest in griffin work: Street of the Seven Angels, a satiric anti-censorship movel, and Scatterd Shadown: A Memoir of Blindness and Vision.

Works by John Howard Griffin

The Devil Rides Outside (1952, Ebook 2010)

Nuni (1956, Ebook 2010)

Land of the High Sky (1959)

Black Like Me (1961)

The Definitive Griffin Estate Edition (2004)

The Definitive Griffin Estate Edition, Revised with Index (2006)

Ebook edition (2010)

50th Anniversary Edition (2011)

The John Howard Griffin Reader (1968)

The Church and the Black Man (1969)

A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton (1970)

Twelve Photographic Portraits (1973)

Jacques Maritain: Homage in Words and Pictures (1974)

A Time to Be Human (1977)

The Hermitage Journals (1981)

Follow the Ecstasy: Thomas Mertons Hermitage Years (1983, 1993, Ebook 2010)

Pilgrimage (1985)

Encounters with the Other (1997)

Street of the Seven Angels (2003, Ebook 2010)

Available Light: Exile in Mexico (2008, Ebook 2010

Scattered Shadows: A Memoir of Blindness and Vision (2004, Ebook 2010)

I wet my sponge, poured dye on it, and touched up the corners of my mouth and lips, which were always difficult spots.

- Black Like Me, page 119

This photograph of Griffin applying the dye to his face is here published for the first time. This and other historic photographs included in this edition of Black Like Me were taken by Don Rutledge in 1959 in New Orleans.

Black Like Me 1960, 1961, 1977 by John Howard Griffin.
Portions first appeared in Sepia magazine 1960 by Good Publishing Co. Copyright renewed 1989 by Elizabeth Griffin-Bonazzi, Susan Griffin-Campbell, John H. Griffin, Jr., Gregory P. Griffin and Amanda Griffin-Fenton. Black Like Me: The Definitive Griffin Estate Edition 2004 by The Estate of John Howard Griffin and Elizabeth Griffin-Bonazzi. Beyond Otherness by John Howard Griffin first appeared in Encounters with the Other (Latitudes Press) 1997 by Robert Bonazzi. Foreword 2004 by Studs Terkel. Afterword 2004 by Robert Bonazzi. Photographs 2004 by Don Rutledge. Black Like Me: The Definitive Griffin Estate E-Book Edition 2010 by The Estate of John Howard Griffin and Elizabeth Griffin-Bonazzi. All rights reserved.

First Wings Press Edition, 2004
Second Wings Press Edition, with Index, 2006
ISBN: 0-930324-72-2 (trade hardcover edition) 978-0-930324-72-8
ISBN: 0-930324-73-0 (reinforced library binding) 978-0-930324-73-5
Wings Press Ebook Editions, 2010:
ePub ISBN: 978-1-60940-108-5 Kindle ISBN: 978-1-60940-109-2
Library PDF ISBN: 978-1-60940-110-8

Except for fair use in reviews and/or scholarly considerations, no portion of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of Robert Bonazzi, representing the Estate of John Howard Griffin and Elizabeth Griffin-Bonazzi.

Wings Press
627 E. Guenther San Antonio, Texas 78210
Phone/fax: (210) 271-7805 www.wingspress.com
Distributed by Independent Publishers Group www.ipgbook.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Griffin, John Howard, 1920 1980
Black like me : the definitive Griffin estate edition, corrected from original manuscripts / John Howard Griffin; with a foreword by Studs Terkel; historic photographs by Don Rutledge; and an afterword by Robert Bonazzi. 1st Wings Press ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-930324-72-2 / 978-0-930324-72-8 (alk. paper) ISBN
0-930324-73-0 / 978-0-930324-73-5 (reinforced lib. bdg. : alk. paper)
1. African Americans-Southern States-Social conditions. 2. Southern States-Race relations. 3. Griffin, John Howard, 1920- 1980. 4. Texas-Biography. I. Title.

E185.61.G8 2006
975.00496073dc22

2004001549

In Memory of

John Howard Griffin (1920-1980)

and

Elizabeth Griffin-Bonazzi (1935-2000)