The editorial director of Sepia magazine. Like George Levitan, Adelle is someone Griffin trusts greatly, which is why he meets with her before going through with his plan to darken his skin. Adelle tries to tell him the many dangers related to this project, saying he’ll be going against the country’s deeply ingrained strains of racism. This, Adelle says, is why it’s so risky to pose as a black man in the segregated South, for many whites will resent him for “stir[ring]” things up. However, Griffin decides to go through with his plan despite these dangers.
Adelle Jackson Quotes in Black Like Me
The Black Like Me quotes below are all either spoken by Adelle Jackson or refer to Adelle Jackson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Signet edition of Black Like Me published in 1960.
October 29, 1959
Quotes
“You don’t know what you’d be getting into, John,” she said. She felt that when my book was published, I would be the butt of resentment from all the hate groups, that they would stop at nothing to discredit me, and that many decent whites would be afraid to show me courtesies when others might be watching. And, too, there are the deeper currents among even well-intentioned Southerners, currents that make the idea of a white man’s assuming nonwhite identity a somewhat repulsive step down. And other currents that say, “Don’t stir up anything. Let’s try to keep things peaceful.”
Related Characters:
Adelle Jackson (speaker), John Howard Griffin
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Adelle Jackson Character Timeline in Black Like Me
The timeline below shows where the character Adelle Jackson appears in Black Like Me. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
October 29, 1959
...his way out of the office, Griffin has a similar conversation with Sepia’s editorial director, Adelle Jackson . “You don’t know what you’d be getting into, John,” she says, pointing out that...
(full context)
October 30, 1959
Griffin has lunch with Adelle Jackson and George Levitan, plus three Dallas FBI officers, since he wants them to be aware...
(full context)