black like me
... whites had claimed?” The toughest part of Griffen’s journey was preparing for his step past the color line and into the south, as a black man. It took several weeks to accomplish the right color and look that he was trying to achieve in order to pass in the black community. In New Orleans, he found his entrance into the black community through a black shoe shine boy, who he met prior to the medication. The amazing thing was, that after the medicine began to take full effect, the same shoe shine boy that he had been going to everyday as a white man, did not recognize him as a black man. This is a tough idea to believe considering that all of his mannerisms were still technically “white.” Surprisingly enough, many people did not recognize him. Even the same girl that worked in the convenience store, in which he had been buying cigarettes everyday as a white man, was rude to him as a black man. This are prime examples that color is a blinder for many, even the black shoe shine boy, who did not “really” notice him until he was a black man. For him it was very complicated entering the black community with out any allies because he did not know where the black drinking fountains or bathrooms resided. Some times he would have to sit by a fountain for several hours waiting to see which “color” would use the facility first. If it was white he would have to venture off and find another one and begin this process all over again. Work was also difficult to find and after weeks of trying he left New Orleans to go to Mississippi. The journey to Mississippi was a tough one. Probably more so then he imagined. The deeper he traveled into the south, the more strife he had to deal with. On the bus to Mississippi the bus drive would not let the “black folk” out of the bus to use the rest room at a rest area. So he began hitchhiking, finding that he could only get rides during late hours because whites were in fear of being seen with a black man. These rides were usually plagued with conversations of sex because they were curious about things such as his genitalia and sex with Negro women. This proved the hypocrisy that was going on in the south. Southern white claimed that black Negroes had no morals and in the end, the whites were the ones being perverted and asking such immoral questions. Most of them eventually made him get out because he did not cooperative. Walking through town white people would spit on him and throw things at him. His traveler’s checks were near impossible to get cashed as a black man. So now he was fatigued and hungry. He was feeling down on his luck and with less hope for the white population. He was beginning to understand how it felt to be a black man in the south. Although Griffen experience many trials and tribulations as a black man, he also experienced a few good aspec...