John Howard Griffin was a remarkable man. As a Texan teenager who found himself in France at the outbreak of World War II, he helped to smuggle Jewish children to safety and freedom.

He then served with distinction in the US Air Force in the Pacific. And then, after the war - when illness struck him blind for 10 years while he was still relatively young - he became a prolific writer.

It was after his sight returned that he hit upon the idea of Black Like Me, the work which is his most important legacy.

The whole business of racial impersonation might make us feel vaguely uncomfortable now, but in 1959 a black writer simply could not have found an audience for such a graphic portrayal of African-American grievance.
Griffin's grim adventures as a black man in a white man's world are worth reading. They remain a set text for many American high school children.