John Howard Griffin was an American journalist and author from Texas who dedicated much of his career to writing about and championing racial equality. Born in Dallas in 1920, he became known for his investigative approach to understanding social issues. Griffin is best known for his 1959 project in which he temporarily altered his appearance to pass as a Black man and traveled through the Deep South. His goal was to experience life and segregation from the other side of the color line firsthand. He initially published a series of articles about this experience in Sepia magazine, which had funded the project. Griffin later expanded his account into book form, publishing Black Like Me in 1961. The work became influential and was adapted into a 1964 film of the same name. A 50th anniversary edition of the book was published in 2011 by Wings Press. Griffin died in Fort Worth, Texas in 1980.