DOCSLIB.ORG

From Deacon Mark Miller's Desk

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
From Deacon Mark Miller's Desk From Deacon Mark Miller’s Desk June marked the 100th birthday of John Howard Griffin, the author of the seminal civil rights book "Black Like Me." A committed Catholic, Griffin explored the reality of what it meant to be black in America at the beginning of the 1960s. Everything in his life prepared him for and led him to the unique journey he chronicles in his famous book. He was born in Dallas, Texas. He was raised in a Christian family who taught him the blacks were inferior. At 14, unbeknownst to his parents, he applied to and was accepted at a boarding school in France where he would live for the next four years. His Christian empathy for others moved him to join the French Resistance and smuggle Jewish children to England. In 1939, he fled France one step ahead of the Gestapo. Upon return to the states. He joined the Army Air Corps as a radio operator. Just before the war ended, he was blinded by shrapnel during an air raid that caused him to lose his sight. When he returned home, he investigated Catholicism and found in it the solace he needed. He studied the works of Thomas Aquinas and other theologians and brought their lessons to bear in his life as well as the wider world around him. He heard the descriptions of the work of civil rights activists as well as the often- violent response to those efforts. His natural abhorrence of segregation, coupled with his Catholic sense of social and racial justice, encouraged him to seek answers to those problems. His blindness, he said, allowed him to "see the heart and intelligence of a man, and nothing in these things indicates in the slightest whether a man is white or black." He also suffered a bout of spinal malaria in 1955 that left him wheelchair bound. During his recovery from that malady, his eyesight began to clear. By the end of 1957, his sight was fully restored, and he could walk once again. With his wife's support, he launched a plan no one felt could succeed. "If a white man became a Negro in the Deep South," he wrote on the first page of Black Like Me, "what adjustments would he have to make? The only way I could see to bridge the gap between us," he would write, "was to become a Negro." Using medication, stains, and extended daily sessions under ultraviolet light, he did precisely that. "Black Like Me" is the journal of his travels and experiences. First published in 1961, the book chronicles his six-week journey as a black man through the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia. It details the depth of oppression, prejudice, and hardship blacks faced daily. Whites avoided or scorned him. Jim Crow laws ensured he got only the most menial jobs. He was threatened by strangers and followed by thugs. The book was Griffin's effort to persuade America to open its eyes. He hoped to counter the white perception that American blacks "led essentially the same kind of lives whites know, with certain inconveniences caused by discrimination and prejudice." His experiences taught him how far from the truth that statement truly was. "The Negro" he said, "is treated not even as a second-class citizen but as a tenth-class one." After the book's publication, he became a civil rights activist. "One hopes," he wrote, "that if one acts from a thirst for justice and suffers the consequences, then others who share one's thirst may be spared the terror of disesteem and persecution." In his later years, he reflected on his experiences as a black man: "Everything is different. Everything changes. As soon as I got into areas where I had contact with white people, I realized that I was no longer regarded as a human." He believed the root cause of the conflicts present in American society was spiritual disorder. Catholics, he thought, could bring order to the chaotic world if they would lead by example by learning and applying church teaching. His overall conclusion was that "No one, not even a saint, can live without a sense of personal value." In 1969 he was appointed the Official Biographer of Thomas Merton. Throughout his life he wrote and lectured widely on race relations and social justice. He died in 1980 at the age of sixty. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Black Like Me John Howard Griffin
    TEACHER GUIDE GRADES 6-8 COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM BASED LESSON PLANS Black Like Me John Howard Griffin READ, WRITE, THINK, DISCUSS AND CONNECT Black Like Me John Howard Griffin TEACHER GUIDE NOTE: The trade book edition of the novel used to prepare this guide is found in the Novel Units catalog and on the Novel Units website. Using other editions may have varied page references. Please note: We have assigned Interest Levels based on our knowledge of the themes and ideas of the books included in the Novel Units sets, however, please assess the appropriateness of this novel or trade book for the age level and maturity of your students prior to reading with them. You know your students best! ISBN 978-1-50203-623-0 Copyright infringement is a violation of Federal Law. © 2020 by Novel Units, Inc., St. Louis, MO. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or To order, contact your transmitted in any way or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, local school supply store, or: recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from Novel Units, Inc. Toll-Free Fax: 877.716.7272 Reproduction of any part of this publication for an entire school or for a school Phone: 888.650.4224 system, by for-profit institutions and tutoring centers, or for commercial sale is 3901 Union Blvd., Suite 155 strictly prohibited. St. Louis, MO 63115 Novel Units is a registered trademark of Conn Education. [email protected] Printed in the United States of America. novelunits.com
    [Show full text]
  • Choices in LITTLE ROCK
    3434_LittleRock_cover_F 5/27/05 12:58 PM Page 1 Choices IN LITTLE ROCK A FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES TEACHING GUIDE ••••••••• CHOICES IN LITTLE ROCK i Acknowledgments Facing History and Ourselves would like to offer special thanks to The Yawkey Foundation for their support of Choices in Little Rock. Facing History and Ourselves would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance it received from the Boston Public Schools in creating Choices in Little Rock. We are particularly appreciative of the team that consulted on the development of the unit under the leadership of Sidney W. Smith, Director, Curriculum and Instructional Practices, and Judith Berkowitz, Ed.D., Project Director for Teaching American History. Patricia Artis, history coach Magda Donis, language acquisitions coach Meira Levinson, Ph.D., teacher, McCormack Middle School Kris Taylor, history coach Mark Taylor, teacher, King Middle School Facing History and Ourselves would also like to offer special thanks to the Boston Public School teachers who piloted the unit and provided valuable suggestions for its improvement. Constance Breeden, teacher, Irving Middle School Saundra Coaxum, teacher, Edison Middle School Gary Fisher, teacher, Timilty Middle School Adam Gibbons, teacher, Lyndon School Meghan Hendrickson, history coach, former teacher, Dearborn Middle School Wayne Martin, Edwards Middle School Peter Wolf, Curley Middle School Facing History and Ourselves values the efforts of its staff in producing and implementing the unit. We are grateful to Margot Strom, Marc Skvirsky, Jennifer Jones Clark, Fran Colletti, Phyllis Goldstein, Jimmie Jones, Melinda Jones-Rhoades, Tracy O’Brien, Jenifer Snow, Jocelyn Stanton, Chris Stokes, and Adam Strom. Design: Carter Halliday Associates www.carterhalliday.com Printed in the United States of America 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 November 2009 ISBN-13: 978-0-9798440-5-8 ISBN-10: 0-9798440-5-3 Copyright © 2008 Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • John Howard Griffin Papers, 1920-1980 MS# 0522 ©2007 Columbia University Library
    John Howard Griffin Papers, 1920-1980 MS# 0522 ©2007 Columbia University Library SUMMARY INFORMATION Creator John Howard Griffin Title and dates John Howard Griffin Papers, 1920-1980 Abstract Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, printed material and photographs of the novelist, social activist, biographer of Thomas Merton, and author of Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin. Size 18 linear ft. (37 document boxes) Call number MS# 0522 Location Columbia University Butler Library, 6th Floor Rare Book and Manuscript Library 535 West 114th Street New York, NY 10027 Language(s) of material In English and French BOX | FOLDER John Howard GRIFFIN Page 2 of 106 Biographical Note John Howard Griffin (1920-1980) was born in Mansfield, Texas. His early training was as a musicologist in Tours, France specializing in Gregorian Chant. He studied psychology, specializing in the effects of music on the mentally disturbed. He also studied photography and became an expert portrait photography. During WWII he help Jews in France escape the Nazis. After the fall of France, he joined the U. S. Army Air Corps and was sent to the South Pacific to work with the native islanders. Injured by a bomb blast he gradually lost his sight, becoming totally blind by 1947. During his blindness he wrote his two major novels The Devil Rides Outside and Nuni as well as numerous short stories. In 1951 he became a Roman Catholic. After recovering his sight in 1957, he wrote for Sepia magazine and in 1959 he wrote a series of articles for Sepia magazine based on his travels through the Deep South as a "black" man.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Like Me-Edited
    Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet, University of Lausanne Black Like Me: Tropes of Racial Transformation in Contemporary Cinema Fantasy, Gothic, horror and sci-fi fiction have long been privileged genres for exploring anxieties, fantasies and thought experiments about race. In nineteenth-century fiction, Gothic monsters such as Frankenstein’s creature, Dracula, and Mr. Hyde were often understood as possessing racial overtones, although interestingly these figures were usually not marked as “raced” in early silent film versions.1 Instead, the first important Gothic figure of the twentieth century to be widely understood as racially resonant was King Kong.2 More recent instances of similarly implicit coding are present in the Predator series, while overt allegories of sci-fi multiculturalism include the Star Trek, X-Men and Alien Nation franchises. In Strange Encounters, Sara Ahmed notes that space aliens, which have become a ubiquitous if ambivalent presence in popular culture, pose questions about the limits of being human as well as about the nature of community and its borders (Ahmed, 3). In this respect, space aliens are the contemporary heirs of the cultural work of nineteenth-century Gothic monsters. Two recent science fiction films engage with the question of human nature and community through a nearly identical gambit: that of imagining a 1 See, for example, H.L. Malchow’s Gothic Images of Race in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996). 2 I use the word “resonant” in order to avoid the term “allegorical,” which is too strong in my view, but other scholars have read King Kong as a racist allegory of black masculinity, e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Racial Prejudice Underlying the Jim Crow Law Practices in the Deep South Revealed in John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me
    RACIAL PREJUDICE UNDERLYING THE JIM CROW LAW PRACTICES IN THE DEEP SOUTH REVEALED IN JOHN HOWARD GRIFFIN’S BLACK LIKE ME AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By ALICE FEBRIANNE Student Number: 034214039 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2007 i A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis RACIAL PREJUDICE UNDERLYING THE JIM CROW LAW PRACTICES IN THE DEEP SOUTH REVEALED IN JOHN HOWARD GRIFFIN’S BLACK LIKE ME By ALICE FEBRIANNE Student Number: 034214039 Approved by Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. July 28, 2007. Advisor Elisa Dwi Wardhani, S.S., M.Hum. July 28, 2007. Co-advisor ii A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis RACIAL PREJUDICE UNDERLYING THE JIM CROW LAW PRACTICES IN THE DEEP SOUTH REVEALED IN JOHN HOWARD GRIFFIN’S BLACK LIKE ME By ALICE FEBRIANNE Student Number: 034214039 Defended before the Board of Examiners on September 26, 2007 and Declared Acceptable BOARD OF EXAMINERS Name Signature Chairman : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. _____________ Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum. _____________ Member : G. Fajar Sasmita Aji, S.S., M.Hum. _____________ Member : Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. _____________ Member : Elisa Dwi Wardhani, S.S., M.Hum. _____________ Yogyakarta, October 22, 2007 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University Dean Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. iii For with GOD Nothing shall be impossible. (Luke 1 : 37) iv This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to my beloved parents, my sisters and brother, my beloved mate, and those who love and support me.
    [Show full text]
  • The Malleability of African American Political Racial Group Identification Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulf
    Black Like Me: The Malleability of African American Political Racial Group Identification Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Chryl Nicole Laird, M.A. Graduate Program in Political Science The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Ismail White, Advisor Corrine McConnaughy Tom Nelson Copyright by Chryl Nicole Laird 2014 Abstract Prior research in political behavior illustrates that individuals rely upon group identities in political decision-making. People who are highly identified with a particular group are likely to make choices in line with that group’s interest. Despite advancements in the literature, we still know considerably little about how identification with a certain group transforms into a salient political identification. Additionally, the existing literature does not provide or explain the mechanism that facilitates this transition? My argument is that political context significantly shapes not only the salience of the political attachment, but also the strength of that attachment. I use experimental methods to establish the malleability of political attachment to a group. In particular, I focus on Black Americans as the main test case due to the strong empirical evidence that demonstrates that their Black political attachment with the racial group, or linked fate, is fundamental to explaining political decisions and behavior. In my first study (Chapter 2), I test the contextual effects of racialized political discourse by varying explicit racial messages about which segments of the Black community are defined as a part of the broader “Black” interest. I find that Blacks that are not chronically included or excluded in political discourse—moveable Blacks—show significant increases in their linked fate when their interests are being framed as the main interest for the group.
    [Show full text]
  • UNDERSTANDING RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH the EXPERIENCES of BLACK WOMEN in WHITE SORORITIES at PREDOMINANTLY WHITE INSTITUTIONS (Pwis)
    RUNNING HEAD: BLACK LIKE ME BLACK LIKE ME: UNDERSTANDING RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE EXPERIENCES OF BLACK WOMEN IN WHITE SORORITIES AT PREDOMINANTLY WHITE INSTITUTIONS (PWIs) By Joy L. Smith A dissertation submitted to The Graduate School of Education Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Graduate Program in Social & Philosophical Foundations of Education Approved by ________________________________________ Dr. Beth C. Rubin, Chair ________________________________________ Dr. James Giarelli ________________________________________ Dr. Fred J. Bonner II New Brunswick, New Jersey August, 2018 BLACK LIKE ME Abstract of the Dissertation Du Bois (1902) argues that “being Black” is a consistent identity struggle for people of African descent in the United States because Black identity is often seen as incongruent with the cultural and social values of mainstream America. Tinto (1993) offers that this incongruence is apparent at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) and suggests that participating in racially- centered student organizations allows Black students to “fit in” at PWIs and, in turn, promotes their success in college. Carter (1994) contends that Black identity is not a uniformed experience; socioeconomic status, educational level/attainment and ethnicity/nationality diversify it. This dissertation explored this versatility through the stories of Black women who joined White sororities at PWIs. The goal was to shed light on their experiences, to understand how race is perceived and understood in the lives of those who do not perform race in traditional or stereotypical ways. Secondly, the research delved into the intersected relationship between race, class/socioeconomics and ethnicity/nationality—and the role that it plays in defining Black identity at PWIs.
    [Show full text]
  • AP Language and Composition Summer Reading 2020-2021 FINAL
    Required Reading for Summer 2020 AP Language and Composition Students should purchase copies of the required books and annotate them as they read, giving careful consideration to how writers use literary and rhetorical techniques to craft meaning and convey a message. Journaling as well as developing interpretive questions and responses to the reading are encouraged. Students will be able to use their annotated books during the summer reading test, which will take place during the first full week of school. As students read, they should keep the following over-arching task in mind: Identify how the Mercy Core Values (provided at the end of the list) appear or fail to appear in each of the texts and how their inclusion or absence helps to convey the author’s purpose. The course also requires broad cultural awareness. Reading and following the news on a regular basis is highly recommended. REQUIRED BOOK #1 Read the following selected essays from Annie Dillard’s collection, The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New, published in 2016 by HarperCollins. (Page numbers are in parentheses.) “Total Eclipse” (1) “A Writer in the World” (105) “The Weasel” (33) “This Is the Life” (117) “Paganism” (39) “On Foot in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley” (133) “Waking Up” (55) “Seeing” (151) “Skin” (57) “The Waters of Separation” (173) “Being Chased” (65) Tsunami (189) “Jokes” (73) “Footprints” (191) “Waking Up Wild” (83) “For the Time Being” (193) “Envoy” (99) REQUIRED BOOK #2: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass This is the autobiography of the early life of Frederick Douglass who escaped slavery to become a leading literary figure and a voice for abolition.
    [Show full text]
  • "A Spy in the Enemy's Country": Black Like Me As Cold War Narrative
    "A Spy in the Enemy's Country": Black Like Me as Cold War Narrative Nelson Hathcock When Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev stepped onto the runway of Andrews Air Force Base in September 1959, his typical audacity was bolstered because, three days before, the Russians had landed a missile on the moon. He handed a dour-faced President Eisenhower a model of Lunik II.1 Despite the Russian leader's diplomatic brazenness, his thirteen-day visit—the first ever by a Soviet head of state—continued the thaw in relations that had begun mid- decade. The Soviet Union had embarked on policies of "de-Stalinization" and "peaceful coexistence" with the West almost as soon as the former dictator was cold (1953), while in the United States, the death in May 1959 of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the primary advocate of brinkmanship, had eased the way for Khrushchev's tour. However, perceptive analysts of Cold War dynam­ ics, especially those in the intelligence community, had seen as early as 1945 that this conflict would devolve into "a psychological contest" based upon the "manufacturing of consent by 'peaceful' methods ... and the use of propaganda to erode hostile positions."2 Eruptions of armed conflict in the ensuing years— haunted by the specter of nuclear escalation—only underscored the importance of the battle for hearts and minds. The itinerary of the Soviet leader's visit to the United States is all the more interesting because it foregrounds America's frailty in the effort to generate international support. From his welcome in Washington, D.C., Khrushchev went to New York and California, and then back to locales in Iowa, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, followed by three days at the presidential retreat at Camp David.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
    Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin October 28, 1959-November 12 1. Summarize Griffin’s steps in preparation for his transformation. 2. Describe Sterling Williams, the man Griffin confides in to enter into the black community. 3. Examine the three times that Griffin writes about a great feeling of loneliness. 4. Explain how the blacks Griffin meets are unified in their daily lives. 5. What does cosmopolitan mean in light of what Griffin has learned about whites in New Orleans. 6. Why is the scene with the boy harassing Griffin disturbing? 7. How do Sterling Williams and Joe copy the attitudes of the white people when dealing with the wino? 8. What concepts or ideas does the doctor’s comment, “Now you go into oblivion” emphasize? 9. List examples of prejudice or racism Griffin experiences. 10. Prediction: What will happen as Griffin continues his journey into Mississippi, a state known for its difficult race relations? 1 | P a g e Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin November 14-16 11. Why is the story most effective in first-person narrative style? 12. What is surprising about Christophe and his actions on the bus? 13. The bus driver refers to Bill as “boy.” Why is this reference offensive? 14. Analyze the metaphor Griffin uses when he says, “I knew I was in hell.” 15. Describe the results of P.D. East’s attempt to write about fairness for the Negro. 16. Why does Griffin feel that most whites cannot honestly consider themselves superior to black people? 17. Prediction: What will Griffin encounter as he hitchhikes at night? 2 | P a g e Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin In each row, list words or phrases that develop the use of imagery in Griffin’s writing when he describes the scene on Mobile Street.
    [Show full text]
  • White Like Me: Race and Identity Through Majority Eyes
    Excerpted from When Race Becomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront Their Personal Histories. Edited by Bernestine Singley. Lawrence Hill Books. 2002 © Felicia GUSlin White Like Me: Race and Identity Through Majority Eyes TIM WISE "How else except by becoming a Negro could a white man hope to learn the truth.... The best way to find out if we had sec- ond-class citizens, and what their plight was, would be to become one of them ..." THOUSANDS OF HIGH school students read these words every year, hav- ing been assigned the classic from which they come: Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. Teachers are especially quick to assign the book to white students, in the hopes that it may get them to think seriously about the issue of race in America. Black students, who by then pretty well understand what it means to be perceived as the racial "other," are less likely to require such an instructional. But for us whites-only 12 percent of whom, according to surveys, will have significant interac- 225 226 TIM WISE tions with African Americans while growing up-this reality-based novel is often our first exposure to a real discussion of racism and its consequences. As the reader of Black Like Me learns, its author took skin-darken- ing medication and traveled throughout the Jim Crow South in 1959 to learn first hand the viciousness of our nation's apartheid system. His descriptions of the crushing weight of racial oppression were stark, and caused a minor furor when first published nearly forty years ago.
    [Show full text]
  • Confronting Jim Crow
    Volume 8 • Number 1 • fall 2010 CONFRONTING JIM CROW CENTER FOR PUBLIC HISTORY I remember a family of blacks stepping down for me when I Letter From the Editor: was a boy. I had been taught to be respectful of my elders, and Confronting Jim Crow this was an important lesson that race trumped even age in the order of things under Jim Crow. Only decades later, as I raised As a white boy with working my own child, did I reflect on the pain and humiliation it had to class parents, racism was in the cause parents to practice such subservience in front of their own air I breathed in my youth. Jim children. Crow touched every part of my A division grew steadily between my parents and me. They life. Racial attitudes handed held to the uncompromising racism of the rural South, while down by poor whites in the I absorbed new perspectives from a more open world amid an South for generations remained expanding national culture that reached into all of our lives. In pervasive and unrelenting in this world, sports were an obsession. My sports heroes were my world in the 1950s and early three fiercely successful competitors, the basketball player 1960s. The underlying real- Bill Russell, the baseball pitcher Bob Gibson, and the football ity was stark: We did not have player Jim Brown. All three were black and proud. Courtesy of much else in life, but we did my older brother, I heard Delta Blues singers like Jimmy Reed. have our white skin. Jim Crow Dr.
    [Show full text]