Black Like Me (film)
Encyclopedia
Black Like Me is a 1964 American drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 co-written (with Gerda Lerner
Gerda Lerner
Gerda Lerner is a historian, author and teacher. She is a professor emerita of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a visiting scholar at Duke University...

) and directed by Carl Lerner, based on the book of the same name
Black Like Me
Black Like Me is a non-fiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin first published in 1961. Griffin was a white native of Mansfield, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama...

. The film stars James Whitmore
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...

, Sorrell Booke
Sorrell Booke
Sorrell Booke was an American actor who performed on stage, screen, and television. He is best known for his role as the heavyset, corrupt politician "Boss" Hogg in the television show The Dukes of Hazzard....

, and Roscoe Lee Browne
Roscoe Lee Browne
Roscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing.-Biography:Browne was the fourth son of a Baptist minister, Sylvanus S. Browne, and his wife Lovie...

.

Plot

John Finley Horton (James Whitmore
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...

) is a White American
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...

 journalist
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

 who artificially darkens his skin
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...

 and passes for a black man in the deep South, from New Orleans to Atlanta, where he encounters a great deal of racism from both white and black peoples.

Cast

  • James Whitmore
    James Whitmore
    James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...

     as John Finley Horton
  • Sorrell Booke
    Sorrell Booke
    Sorrell Booke was an American actor who performed on stage, screen, and television. He is best known for his role as the heavyset, corrupt politician "Boss" Hogg in the television show The Dukes of Hazzard....

     as Dr. Jackson
  • Roscoe Lee Browne
    Roscoe Lee Browne
    Roscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing.-Biography:Browne was the fourth son of a Baptist minister, Sylvanus S. Browne, and his wife Lovie...

     as Christopher
  • Al Freeman, Jr.
    Al Freeman, Jr.
    Al Freeman, Jr., M.Ed. is an African-American actor and director....

     as Thomas Newcomb
  • Will Geer
    Will Geer
    Will Geer was an American actor and social activist. His original name was William Aughe Ghere. He is remembered for his portrayal of Grandpa Zebulon Tyler Walton in the 1970s TV series, The Waltons....

     as Truck driver
  • Robert Gerringer
    Robert Gerringer
    Robert Gerringer was an American character actor perhaps best known as Dr. Dave Woodard #2 on the soap opera cum cult TV series Dark Shadows, a role he played during 1967...

     as Ed Saunders
  • Clifton James
    Clifton James
    George Clifton James is an American actor. He is probably best known for his role as the bumbling Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun and his role alongside Sean Connery in The Untouchables .-Personal life:James was...

     as Eli Carr
  • John Marriott
    John Marriott (actor)
    John Marriott was an American film and television actor.Marriott was born in Boley, Indian Territory which is now a part of Oklahoma. He died in Jamaica, Queens, New York City.-Selected filmography:...

     as Hodges
  • Thelma Oliver as Georgie
  • Lenka Petersen
    Lenka Peterson
    Lenka Peterson is an actress of stage, film and television.On Broadway, Peterson's roles included Ella in Sundown Beach , Maude in The Grass Harp , Kitty in The Time of Your Life , Sally and Mary in All the Way Home , Rose in Nuts , and Sarah in Quilters ,...

    as Lucy Horton
  • P.J. Sidney as Frank Newcomb
  • Billie Allen as Vertell
  • Alan Bergmann as Charles Maynard
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