John Howard Griffin Thesis Statement

Being an African American person in America in the late 1950s to the 1960s could not be easy. It was a nightmare to be of color in these times due to racial inequality such as, segregation, social injustice, and violence. A person white or black in the world today could not understand how it felt to live in that time as a black person. The only way to actually know how it was to live then as a black person, is to actually live then as a black person. This is a task that author John Howard Griffin took on himself in 1959. Griffin left his home and family to experience what it is like to be a black man in those times, making his skin colored. Griffin was well educated in liberal arts and this would go on to help him, because they teach one how to think for themselves, learn for life, and how to communicate. Although, Griffin went to others for advice he still always made his own logical decisions at the end of the day. Throughout the book he goes to others for advice for his experiment. The first person he went to was a friend of his named George Levitan, the editor of a magazine by the name of Sepia, which is devoted to Negro issues. …show more content…
Throughout his journey he faces disrespect, violence, and all types of social injustice. He has to learn to deal with certain things because, he decided to act like a black man. He finally gets a pretty good view of the struggle of being a black man in the south in those times and is broken down from it. In the end Griffin and his family are treated poorly, because of his decision to write about this and basically forced out of their home in Mansfield, Texas to Mexico for a bit. He still received praise letters from people thanking him for what he did. The liberal education helped him through all of this and ultimately helped others as