It was illuminating and (obviously) memorable.

I wonder why?

I'm guessing for the same reason.

is a woman with issues who is pretending that she is black. She could be an actress.

I'm not sure what year I read it, but it must have been by 1965, because I graduated from college that year. It was indeed eye opening, and so a group from my college went to see Mr. Griffin speak in Rochester, NY. At the end of his speech, we applauded him enthusiastically. He quelled our enthusiasm by informing us that the discrimination he had reported on in the south was not limited to the south, and he would guarantee the same segregation and discrimination could be found within five miles of where we were sitting. He was right. In 1985 I lived again briefly in Rochester, and observed the same segregation, fear, anger, and misunderstanding that Griffin reported on in 1961. Almost nothing, it seemed, had changed.

It is true that white Americans can never know exactly what an African American still experiences every day. But we can try to be better informed. We can read books like Griffin's, and we can read Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, and a dozen other African Americans who write very, very well. By an exercise of our imaginations, we can understand something, if not everything.

I have always recommended both reading the book and seeing the movie to those who are unfamiliar with it.

It is a book that has always stayed with me, opened my eyes.

There have been some who have raised this in relation to the discussion on the Rachel Dolezal fraud yet there is nothing to compare.

And I agree, nothing to compare.
IMHO what she did was just fraud.

was a life changer. I think it was so powerful because the author could discuss the situation from experiencing both sides. No we did not actually experience the black lives but this book helped us understand a lot more than we would ever have understood before. It was our introduction to the civil rights movement.

Could not put it down and still have my original copy.

A fabulous book - and movie.