Black Like Me

by

John Howard Griffin

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Black Like Me makes teaching easy.

Adelle Jackson Character Analysis

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:
Appearance, Identity, and Bigotry Theme Icon
).
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
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Black Like Me LitChart as a printable PDF.
Black Like Me PDF

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:
Appearance, Identity, and Bigotry Theme Icon
).
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
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis: