"Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin [1]

- From Wikipedia [2]: "Griffin was a native of Mansfield, Texas, who had his skin temporarily darkened to pass as a black man. He traveled for six weeks throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia to explore life from the other side of the color line."

1: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451234219

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me

A good long-form story (and a true story that is quite gripping) about how changing the classification can change the perception of the person is the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin,[1] which I read once in childhood and reread a few years ago. Powerful stuff. It's stark to understand that events like the events described in the book happened during the lifetime of a lot of people still living today.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Black-Like-50th-Anniversary-Edition/dp...