Content Warning: This section of the study guide contains detailed discussions of racism and violence motivated by racism, including references to lynching and suicide. The source material includes outdated and offensive racial terms and slurs, which are reproduced in this guide only via quotations.

Black Like Me attracted controversy at the time of its original publication and continues to be criticized today, though for different reasons. Griffin decided to alter his appearance so that others would perceive him as Black, hoping not only to understand the experiences of Black people under segregation for his own sake, but also to publish what he learned to educate white people and help bridge the divide between white and Black Americans. In the early 1960s, when Griffin’s book was at the height of its popularity and influence, the memoir played a role in changing the mindset of white Americans by giving them a glimpse into racial discrimination they did not personally experience. However, Griffin’s challenge to the status quo was not without repercussions; his family had to leave Texas after an effigy of Griffin was hung on Main Street in his hometown. Later editions of Black Like Me note that in the 1970s, Griffin was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, where he was beaten and abandoned on a backroad (Bonazzi, Robert.