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Overview
Walter White (1893-1955) was among the nation's preeminent champions of civil rights. With blond hair and blue eyes, he could "pass" as white even though he identified as African American, and his physical appearance allowed him to go undercover to investigate more than 40 lynchings and race riots in the years following World War I. As executive secretary of the NAACP from 1931 until his death in 1955, White promoted the Harlem Renaissance and led influential national campaigns against lynching, segregation in the military, and racism in Hollywood movies. In this first scholarly biography, Kenneth Robert Janken considers the man who embodied many contradictions. Walter White gained access to white elite culture, establishing friendships with Eleanor Roosevelt and numerous congressmen and Supreme Court justices, but he ultimately considered himself—and was considered by many—an organization man, "Mr. NAACP."
Synopsis
Walter White (1893-1955) was among the nation's preeminent champions of civil rights. With blond hair and blue eyes, he could "pass" as white even though he identified as African American, and his physical appearance allowed him to go undercover to investigate more than 40 lynchings and race riots in the years following World War I. As executive secretary of the NAACP from 1931 until his death in 1955, White promoted the Harlem Renaissance and led influential national campaigns against lynching, segregation in the military, and racism in Hollywood movies. In this first scholarly biography, Kenneth Robert Janken considers the man who embodied many contradictions. Walter White gained access to white elite culture, establishing friendships with Eleanor Roosevelt and numerous congressmen and Supreme Court justices, but he ultimately considered himself—and was considered by many—an organization man, "Mr. NAACP."
Editorials
From the Publisher
This elegantly written and comprehensive biography, the first major work on its subject, is a model of nuanced scholarship and popular history.Publishers Weekly
[An] important book about a largely overlooked, yet pivotal figure.
Paula J. Giddings, author of Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
A well-done biography of an extremely important man, . . . an excellent contribution to scholarship on the early civil rights era.
Journal of African American History
Janken's spellbinding examination . . . reminds us that race in America has never been as simple as black and white.
Helen Zia, author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
A balanced assessment of a very complicated and important man.
African American Review