Catholic Like Me: The Conversions of John Howard Griffin

John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me became an instant lightning rod for Americans on all sides of the emerging Civil Rights Movement. While much work has been done to analyze the critical strengths and limitations of the book, few have examined Griffin’s life and work from the perspective of his conversion to and ongoing engagement with Catholic institutional and intellectual traditions. Griffin’s conversion remains vital to understanding his career-defining experiment. Drawing on personal writings from Griffin’s spiritual journal and published reflections, this article foregrounds his religious views, particularly his embrace of Catholic monasticism, as a critique of modern American life. Griffin’s pursuit of the monastic ideal, and its demand for self-conversion through experience of the “other,” attempted a profound reprimand of Southern racism. Through subsequent and authentic engagement with black voices, Griffin ultimately rejected the efficacy of such moral appeals as Americans came to terms with the structural depths of racial oppression.