Black Like Me (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Black Like Me is a 1964 American drama film based on the 1961 book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. The journalist disguised himself to pass as an African-American man for six weeks in 1959 in the Deep South to report on life in the segregated society from the other side of the color line. The film was directed by Carl Lerner and the screenplay was written by Carl and Gerda Lerner. The film stars James Whitmore, Sorrell Booke and Roscoe Lee Browne.
The DVD was released December 11, 2012 in North America from Video Services Corp. The DVD includes a documentary titled Uncommon Vision about John Howard Griffin, the journalist on which the main character is based.
Plot
John Finley Horton (James Whitmore) is a liberal white journalist who darkens his face and hands (and to some degree his body) using various means, sufficiently to pass for a black man. He travels for several weeks in the Deep South in order to report from the other side of the color line in the segregated society. He spends time in places from New Orleans to Atlanta, and encounters racism from both white and black people.
Cast
- James Whitmore as John Finley Horton (Black Like Me author John Howard Griffin)
- Sorrell Booke as Dr. Jackson
- Roscoe Lee Browne as Christophe
- Al Freeman, Jr. as Thomas Newcomb
- Will Geer as truck driver
- Robert Gerringer as Ed Saunders
- Clifton James as Eli Carr
- John Marriott as Hodges
- Thelma Oliver as Georgie
- Lenka Petersen as Lucy Horton
- Richard Ward as Burt Wilson