080-'Black Like Me': Race Realities Under Jim Crow

In 1959, Texas journalist John Howard Griffin darkened his skin and lived for six weeks as a black man in the segregated South. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe his harrowing experience and what it taught him about the true state of race relations in America.

We'll also ponder crescent moons, German submarines, and griffins in India and puzzle over why a man would be arrested for winning a prize at a county fair.

Sources for our feature on John Howard Griffin:

John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me, 1961.

Robert Bonazzi, Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me, 2010.

Maurice Dolbier, "Blinding Disguise in South," Miami News, Oct. 15, 1961.

Jerome Weeks, "'Black Like Me' Just One of Many Roles for John Howard Griffin," Dallas Morning News, Sept. 19, 1997.

H.W. Quick, "He Finds Bias Blighting North, South," Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 16, 1964.

Karen De Witt, "Oppressor Shown What Being Oppressed Is Like," Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 1, 1977.

Ray Sprigle, In the Land of Jim Crow, 1949.

Lucile Torkelson, "Writer Crosses the Race Barrier," Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 29, 1969.

Research questions:

Here's the image of the star and crescent:

And here are the sources I've found that describe the German submarine rescue:

Wolfgang Frank, The Sea Wolves, 1955.

Arch Whitehouse, Subs and Submariners, 1961.

Jacques Yves Cousteau, Captain Cousteau's Underwater Treasury, 1959.

This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Lawrence Miller.

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Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode.

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