John Howard Griffin

Infobox Person
name = John Howard Griffin


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birth_date = birth date|1920|06|16
birth_place = Dallas, Texas
death_date = death date and age|1980|09|09|1920|06|16
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death_cause = Diabetes
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nationality = American
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known_for = "Black Like Me"
education = University of Poitiers,
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party = Democrat
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religion = Catholicism
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parents = John Walter Griffin, Lena May Griffin, "née" Young
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John Howard Griffin (June 16, 1920 - September 9, 1980) was an American journalist and author much of whose writing was about racial equality. A white man, he is best known for darkening his skin and journeying through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to experience segregation in the Deep South in 1959. He wrote about the experience in his 1961 book "Black Like Me".

Griffin was born in Dallas, Texas on June 16, 1920 to John Walter Griffin and Lena May Griffin, "née" Young. [ [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fgr99.html Article about Griffin] by the Texas State Historical Association and the University of Texas at Austin] He studied French and literature at the University of Poitiers and medicine at the École de Médicine. At 19, he worked as a medic in the French Resistance army, and then served 39 months stationed in the South Pacific in the United States Army Air Corps. He became disabled and was decorated for braveryFact|date=June 2008.

Griffin wrote two novels, "The Devil Rides Outside" and "Nuni", during a decade of blindness between 1947 and 1957, the result of an accident during his service in the US air force. He later regained his vision.

Griffin converted to Catholicism in 1952 and became a Third Order Carmelite. He was also a lifelong Democrat.

Throughout his life, Griffin lectured and wrote on race relations and social justice. Griffin was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award, named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. "Pacem in Terris" is Latin for "Peace on Earth."

He died on September 9, 1980 due to diabetes and/or several other health problems, but not skin cancer or other complications of his skin darkening, as some believe. [ [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/griffin.asp Dispute of the belief that Griffin died from his skin darkening treatments] (from Snopes.com)]

Works

*"The Devil Rides Outside" (1952)
*"Nuni" (1956)
*"Land of the High Sky" (1959)
*"Black Like Me" (1961)
*"The Church and the Black Man" (1969)
*"A Time to be Human" (1977)

References

External links

* [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/955/A_revolutionary_writer_John_H_Griffin "A Revolutionary Writer",] John H. Griffin
* [http://books.google.com/books?q=%22John+H.+Griffin%22&btnG=Search+Books&as_brr=1 Full-view books about John H. Griffin] at Google Book Search
* [http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00050.xml&query=john%20howard%20griffin&query-join=and John Howard Griffin Collection] at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

Persondata
NAME= Griffin, John Howard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= American race activist
DATE OF BIRTH= 1920-06-16
PLACE OF BIRTH= Dallas, Texas
DATE OF DEATH= 1980-09-09
PLACE OF DEATH=