For the 2015 Reading Challenge, the category "A book your mom liked" - Well, when we asked mom what her favorite book was.... her response was that she didn't really read much, and the only book she could recall ever reading was "Black Like Me". So, this will have to do for this category.
My thoughts. The book is a slow read....hard to get through at times...dry and slow. But - I think the overall story behind it was interesting. Here's the summary on it from Wikipedia:
Black Like Me is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin first published in 1961. Griffin was a white native of Dallas, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia passing as a black man. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles.
Griffin kept a journal of his experiences; the 188-page diary was the genesis of the book.
At the time of the book's writing in 1959, race relations in America were particularly strained and Griffin aimed to explain the difficulties that black people faced in certain areas. Under the care of a doctor, Griffin artificially darkened his skin to pass as a black man.
One thing I found interesting...and would have enjoyed seeing worked into the book somehow, was towards the end of the book the author mentions having photos taken at some of the places he went. I would be neat to see those photos....but they weren't included in this book.
I think this book would be an interesting and informative read for anyone studying race relations and such. I certainly wonder how the experiment would be different in today's world.
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