White, Walter (Francis) (1893–1955)

US civil rights leader and author. A leading member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he fought against lynching and launched numerous campaigns against segregation in public facilities, white primaries, and the poll taxes, and against educational discrimination. Journalistic research he conducted in Europe, published as A Rising Wind (1945), influenced President Harry Truman's decision to desegregate the armed forces. In 1946 he further pressured President Truman to set up the President's Committee on Civil Rights, and this led the Democrats to adopt their divisive civil rights platform in 1948.

White was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Fair-skinned, blond, and blue-eyed although part black, he could pass for white but chose to champion the cause of the black race after experiencing a race riot in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1906; later, in 1926 he published his novel Flight, based on his experiences of ‘passing’. One of the most ardent antilynching proponents in America, he investigated more than 40 lynchings and eight race riots. As a Guggenheim Fellow he conducted a study of lynching in the USA, which became the basis of his Rope and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch (1929).

As an insurance company cashier, he took the lead in establishing a branch of the NAACP in Atlanta in 1916. He was named assistant secretary of the NAACP (1918–31) and NAACP executive secretary (1931–55). Author of several other books and numerous articles, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal (1937) in recognition of his efforts on behalf of African-Americans. Because of his efforts and those of A Philip Randolph, President Franklin Roosevelt prohibited discrimination in the defence industries and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1941. Also concerned with worldwide prejudice, he was less successful on this front and was criticized as an autocrat inside the NAACP. Although he retained his post until his death, from 1949 on his powers were limited.