Do you remember reading the book: Black Like Me as a teenager? I do.
I read the first edition of this book, while I was in high school, living here in Canada.
It touched me deeply at the time and now, reading it again this past week, in this new updated edition, it touched me even more as an adult. Reading and contemplating the story of Griffin's amazing journey to the deep South of the US in late 1959; a white man disguised (with the use of drugs, sunlamp treatments and make-up) as a black man.
What came to mind as I finished reading this book for the second time, was the incredible and hard-to-imagine courage that John Howard Griffin showed, in taking on this project. He certainly could have been killed. And he did endure injury and repeated threats to himself and to his family because of what he did and for many years to follow.
I found the additional information in this new estate edition, about Griffin's life, fascinating too. I did not realize that he had been blind for 10 years, earlier in life and also that he died at the relatively early age of 60.
His was a life that mattered.
I hope that it is still on reading lists in schools. Does anyone know if it is?
The relevance of what he did and his place in US history,will never die.
Overall rating for this book/Ebook: Excellent. 5 out of 5.
