3 Review(s)

On October 28, 1959, John Howard Griffin underwent a transformation that changed many lives beyond his own-he made his skin black and traveled through the segregated Deep South. His odyssey of discovery was captured in journal entries, arguably the single most important documentation of 20th-century American racism ever written. More than 50 years later, this newly edited edition-which is based on the original manuscript and includes a new design and added afterword-gives fresh life to what is still considered a "contemporary book." The story that earned respect from civil rights leaders and death threats from many others endures today as one of the great human-and humanitarian-documents of the era. In this new century, when terrorism is too often defined in terms of a single ethnic designation or religion, and the first black president of the United States is subject to hateful slurs, this record serves as a reminder that America has been blinded by fear and racial intolerance before. This is the story of a man who opened his eyes and helped an entire nation to do likewise.