Walter White (NAACP)

For others with the same name, see Walter White (disambiguation).

Walter Francis White
White photographed by Clara Sipprell, c. 1950
Executive Secretary of the NAACP
In office
1929–1955
Preceded byJames Weldon Johnson
Succeeded byRoy Wilkins
Personal details
Born
Walter Francis White

(1893-07-01)July 1, 1893
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
DiedMarch 21, 1955(1955-03-21) (aged 61)
New York City, U.S.
Spouses
Gladys Powell
​
​
(m. 1922; div. 1949)​
​
(m. 1949)​
Children2, including Jane
EducationAtlanta University (BA)

Walter Francis White (July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955) was an American civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a quarter of a century, from 1929 until 1955. He directed a broad program of legal challenges to racial segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist.

White first joined the NAACP as an investigator in 1918, at the invitation of James Weldon Johnson. He acted as Johnson's assistant national secretary and traveled to the South to investigate lynchings and race riots. Being light-skinned, at times he was able to pass as white to facilitate his investigations and protect himself in tense situations. White succeeded Johnson as the head of the NAACP in an acting capacity in 1929, taking over officially in 1931, and led the organization until his death in 1955.[1][2] He joined the Advisory Council for the Government of the Virgin Islands in 1934, but he resigned in 1935 to protest President Franklin D. Roosevelt's silence at Southern Democrats' blocking of anti-lynching legislation to avoid retaliatory obstruction of his New Deal policies.

White oversaw the plans and organizational structure of the fight against public segregation. He worked with President Harry S. Truman on desegregating the armed forces after World War II and gave him a draft for the Executive Order to implement this.[3] Under White's leadership, the NAACP set up its Legal Defense Fund, which conducted numerous legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement, and achieved many successes.[4] Among these was the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which determined that segregated education was inherently unequal. White also quintupled NAACP membership to nearly 500,000.[5]

  1. ^ Nina Mjagkij (2003). Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. Routledge. p. 323. ISBN 1-135-58123-1.
  2. ^ "Walter White, Secretary Of NAACP, Dies". The Knoxville Journal. March 22, 1955. p. 18. Retrieved April 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "World War II and the Post War Years - NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom | Exhibitions - Library of Congress". Library of Congress. February 21, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  4. ^ "Walter White, Mr. NAACP (April 2003) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin". Library of Congress. April 2003. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  5. ^ William Jelani Cobb (December 6, 2004). "Past Imperfect: Post Mfume". Afro-Netizen.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2007.