Filming "Black Like Me" in Upper Marlboro

Filming "Black Like Me" in Upper Marlboro. , You are standing across from one of the filming locations for Black Like Me., The film, released on May 20, 1964, was based on John Howard Griffin's book about his experience in 1959 of medically darkening his skin to pass himself off as a Black man in the South. Griffin provided an unflinching view of the Jim Crow South and hoped to "destroy the communication barriers between Blacks and whites, to show the oppressor what happens when he is oppressed.", The book was a hit selling 10 million copies. The film version was directed by Carl Lerner and starred James Whitmore. Because of the book's notorious reputation in the South and among white extremists, filming was done in secret using the working title "No Man Walks Alone" to protect the film crew from violence. The film opened to mixed reviews. The Baltimore Afro American, the longest running Black family-owned newspaper in the country, declared the film "terrible," noting that it only dealt with segregation on the surface, and that stereotypes of Black people with "obvious honest intentions" undermined it., Though reviled by Southern whites, Griffin himself was propelled into the spotlight and had given more than 1,000 lectures as the Civil Rights Movement accelerated. However, he felt awkward about his position as a white spokesman during the Civil Rights Movement and began curtailing his speaking engagements, finding it "absurd for a white man to presume to speak for Black people when they have superlative voices of their own.", There are two more Civil Rights trail signs within walking distance in Upper Marlboro. One in front of the Upper Marlboro Branch Public Library also on Main Street (Protests at the County Courthouse) and one on Judges Drive near the entrance to District Court (Frederick Douglass High School)