Was there any real progress made during the 1970's in how white America treats a black male after civil rights legislation?
Imagine for a moment you could change the color of your skin to pass as a person of another race or ethnic group. Would you do it? Where would you go? Do you think your friends and family would accept you? Could you accept yourself? What would you see in America that you never saw before? Do you think you would be forever changed by the experience?
Michael Thomas Olesko, a white Polish American is the first Caucasian known to have passed for black not once as John Howard Griffin in the 1960 book "Black like Me" or as Grace Halsell in her 1970 book "Soul Sister" but twice from 1973 to 1975.
Mr. Olesko's early years were laced with the typical stereotypes and fears of blacks that many white Americans were subjected to growing up in the 60's and 70's. But his life dramatically changed when he met a black high school youth Eli Willingham and a group of blacks on a summer job in 1969. He was drawn to develop friendships with them in spite of his parents disapproval. He became obsessed with their lifestyle and the quest to discover if the stereotypes were true. In trying to understand them he is trying to understand his parents, himself and his own Polish culture that he has has been separated from over the years.
For about a year and at the age of 23 in 1972, he studied the idea of taking a drug as Griffin and Halsell did to turn his own skin dark and drive across the US keeping journals along the way.
In June 1973, with $300 cash, a couple of his fathers gas credit cards and a new mastercard in his pocket he kissed his mother goodbye and left his home in Albany, New York to drive to Los Angeles, California. What his family, other than his brother Patrick, didn't know was that he would take medication along the way to darken his skin and arrive in Los Angeles to begin to pass for black. Upon arrival in LA he was suffering from excruciating third degree burns to his body from sun exposure and had to wait six months to heal. Something had gone terribly wrong!
After nine months and while still in Los Angeles he tried again with a different method of using the medication that was successful and began a sojourn back through the mid south including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina that would change his life forever. What resulted was a four installment front page series in the Albany, New York evening newspaper The Knickerbocker News.
Mr. Olesko drove his car rather than hitchhiked as John Howard Griffin did.
Within a year he returned to Los Angeles and duplicated the first trip but this time he drives from Los Angeles through the deep south including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia before returning to New York state.
Along with problems taking his medication Mr Olesko experiences events that might never have ocurred to him if he were white. He was spit on his back in downtown Oklahoma City and called "nigger" by a young white male in Ft Smith, Arkansas. He was called 'nigger" again from a speeding passing car on a backroad in Missisippi. Along the way there were incidents where store clerks threw money on the counter for fear of touching his dark hand or peeped around shelves to make sure he wasn't stealing. In Atlanta at the grave of Martin Luther King, Jr., he is accused of trying to break into his own car by a Police Officer when he locked the keys inside. In Greensboro, NC he tries to get a job but the only ones offered include euthanizing animals or carrying a gun to reposess mobile homes. It seemed these were jobs whites didn't want. There were occasions when white's would engage him in conversations and talk about such things as "penis size", "sex","black entertainers" and football and basketball. One man referred to him as "a strong black buck". Another friendly white man at a Georgia restaurant counter eventually states that he doesn't believe in mixed marriages and would disown his daughter if she ever married a black.
In trying to understand white people he also learns of prejudice in the black community that surprises him. In the student center at Fiske University in Nashville he meets a black female who finds the darkness of his skin an issue for her grandmother who only aproves of "lightskinned" men. He also experiences an evening in a hospital with a Black Muslim group at the bedside of a student who was beaten by a white security guard on campus. At Knoxville College he makes new friends and meets a young female named Jackie from Selma, Alabama.
In Greensboro, NC he befriends Robert Russell and his twin brother Ricky who are stunned to eventually learn he is actually white.
There are many experiences not previously recorded by Griffin or Halsell. In the end in 1975 his travels stop when he is afflicted with a strange nerve disorder that lasts for nearly 5 years. But the crowning achievment of his journies is the acceptance of his black friends by his parents.
One by-product of Mr. Olesko's work is to actually walk through "Black Like Me" and "Soul Sister". He questions some of the elements of "Soul Sister".
Mr. Olesko writes of his 1972 meeting with Grace Halsell, who died in 2000, and phone conversations and notes with author John Howard Griffin who passed away in 1980. At one point while passing, Mr. Olesko is in Ft Worth and around the corner from Griffins home but the author is too sick to let him visit.
Over the years Mr. Olesko has appeared on Canadian National Television as well as a number of regional and local television talk and radio call in shows. He has lectured at a number of universities regarding "diversity" including; The University of Detroit, The University of Kentucky at Lexington, The University of New Mexico, The University of Oklahoma,The Junior College of Albany,NY (Sage College), A&T University and NC Central University.
Now his book "PASSING FOR BLACK" The Journals 1972 to 1975 will be published by January 2009. If you are interested in reading more about Mr. Olesko's travels and wish to be placed on the mailing list for this first historic printing please email him at passing4black@yahoo.com
or write P.O. Box 70335, Ft Lauderdale, Fl 33307.
Imagine for a moment you could change the color of your skin to pass as a person of another race or ethnic group. Would you do it? Where would you go? Do you think your friends and family would accept you? Could you accept yourself? What would you see in America that you never saw before? Do you think you would be forever changed by the experience?
Michael Thomas Olesko, a white Polish American is the first Caucasian known to have passed for black not once as John Howard Griffin in the 1960 book "Black like Me" or as Grace Halsell in her 1970 book "Soul Sister" but twice from 1973 to 1975.
Mr. Olesko's early years were laced with the typical stereotypes and fears of blacks that many white Americans were subjected to growing up in the 60's and 70's. But his life dramatically changed when he met a black high school youth Eli Willingham and a group of blacks on a summer job in 1969. He was drawn to develop friendships with them in spite of his parents disapproval. He became obsessed with their lifestyle and the quest to discover if the stereotypes were true. In trying to understand them he is trying to understand his parents, himself and his own Polish culture that he has has been separated from over the years.
For about a year and at the age of 23 in 1972, he studied the idea of taking a drug as Griffin and Halsell did to turn his own skin dark and drive across the US keeping journals along the way.
In June 1973, with $300 cash, a couple of his fathers gas credit cards and a new mastercard in his pocket he kissed his mother goodbye and left his home in Albany, New York to drive to Los Angeles, California. What his family, other than his brother Patrick, didn't know was that he would take medication along the way to darken his skin and arrive in Los Angeles to begin to pass for black. Upon arrival in LA he was suffering from excruciating third degree burns to his body from sun exposure and had to wait six months to heal. Something had gone terribly wrong!
After nine months and while still in Los Angeles he tried again with a different method of using the medication that was successful and began a sojourn back through the mid south including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina that would change his life forever. What resulted was a four installment front page series in the Albany, New York evening newspaper The Knickerbocker News.
Mr. Olesko drove his car rather than hitchhiked as John Howard Griffin did.
Within a year he returned to Los Angeles and duplicated the first trip but this time he drives from Los Angeles through the deep south including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia before returning to New York state.
Along with problems taking his medication Mr Olesko experiences events that might never have ocurred to him if he were white. He was spit on his back in downtown Oklahoma City and called "nigger" by a young white male in Ft Smith, Arkansas. He was called 'nigger" again from a speeding passing car on a backroad in Missisippi. Along the way there were incidents where store clerks threw money on the counter for fear of touching his dark hand or peeped around shelves to make sure he wasn't stealing. In Atlanta at the grave of Martin Luther King, Jr., he is accused of trying to break into his own car by a Police Officer when he locked the keys inside. In Greensboro, NC he tries to get a job but the only ones offered include euthanizing animals or carrying a gun to reposess mobile homes. It seemed these were jobs whites didn't want. There were occasions when white's would engage him in conversations and talk about such things as "penis size", "sex","black entertainers" and football and basketball. One man referred to him as "a strong black buck". Another friendly white man at a Georgia restaurant counter eventually states that he doesn't believe in mixed marriages and would disown his daughter if she ever married a black.
In trying to understand white people he also learns of prejudice in the black community that surprises him. In the student center at Fiske University in Nashville he meets a black female who finds the darkness of his skin an issue for her grandmother who only aproves of "lightskinned" men. He also experiences an evening in a hospital with a Black Muslim group at the bedside of a student who was beaten by a white security guard on campus. At Knoxville College he makes new friends and meets a young female named Jackie from Selma, Alabama.
In Greensboro, NC he befriends Robert Russell and his twin brother Ricky who are stunned to eventually learn he is actually white.
There are many experiences not previously recorded by Griffin or Halsell. In the end in 1975 his travels stop when he is afflicted with a strange nerve disorder that lasts for nearly 5 years. But the crowning achievment of his journies is the acceptance of his black friends by his parents.
One by-product of Mr. Olesko's work is to actually walk through "Black Like Me" and "Soul Sister". He questions some of the elements of "Soul Sister".
Mr. Olesko writes of his 1972 meeting with Grace Halsell, who died in 2000, and phone conversations and notes with author John Howard Griffin who passed away in 1980. At one point while passing, Mr. Olesko is in Ft Worth and around the corner from Griffins home but the author is too sick to let him visit.
Over the years Mr. Olesko has appeared on Canadian National Television as well as a number of regional and local television talk and radio call in shows. He has lectured at a number of universities regarding "diversity" including; The University of Detroit, The University of Kentucky at Lexington, The University of New Mexico, The University of Oklahoma,The Junior College of Albany,NY (Sage College), A&T University and NC Central University.
Now his book "PASSING FOR BLACK" The Journals 1972 to 1975 will be published by January 2009. If you are interested in reading more about Mr. Olesko's travels and wish to be placed on the mailing list for this first historic printing please email him at passing4black@yahoo.com
or write P.O. Box 70335, Ft Lauderdale, Fl 33307.
Mr. Olesko is available for public events on "diversity" issues.
