White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and Amer… (2024)

I was in tears. After thirty years of working to end lynching and system racism, battling white supremacy, Walter F. White finally reached a president who had the courage to change Federal laws. President Truman, having become president upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was facing his first election. He knew he would alienate Southern Democrats by his actions. Truman was from segregated Kansas. But he was angry by the stories White told him about US soldiers returning from the battlefields to endure beatings and lynching. White talked about a soldier who was beaten and blinded because he asked a bus to stop for him to use a bathroom. “I had no idea it was as terrible as that!” the president remarked,” We’ve got to do something!” Truman’s Executive Orders created “fair employment practices” ending discrimination in the federal government. Then, he desegregated the US military. As A. J. Baime writes, “With those words, the modern civil rights movement began.” And I broke down and cried.

Walter F. White had infiltrated the South to report on lynchings and misjustice for over thirty years, even bringing cases to court. But, in the South the local KKK controlled everything–and everyone. White supremacy was a goal tightly held by Southern whites. Failing to bring justice through the local courts, White looked to the Federal government’s responsibility to protect the rights of all Americans. FDR didn’t have the political will, even if Eleanor did, even serving on the NAACP board.

White was able to insinuate himself into the Southern towns because he ‘passed’ for white with his blonde hair and blue eyes. His parents were born in slavery, his grandmother’s children may have been her master’s children. White grew up in a black neighborhood and attended black schools. He could have passed into white society. But as a child he experienced a race riot, the white citizens of his hometown threatening to burn down his family home. He choose to be black. And he made it his life’s work to defend his people.

I grew up in a bubble. My first knowledge of race came in Brownies when we were given a pamphlet about bunnys of different colors learning to get along and be friends. And then one day a woman came to the door, her son behind her, her daughter pushed forward into the meeting room. They were African American. I don’t remember any one being mean or saying anything wrong. I was intrigued, but shy. The girl only came a few times. I was sorry. And I have wondered about it for sixty years. It was years before a teacher in high school taught me about Civil Rights and I began to understand. I took note of what I saw when Dad drove us through Detroit. When the 1967 rebellion broke, my dad drove home early from Highland Park while Mom argued with prejudiced neighbors. My college had seven black students. My husband’s seminary had black students from the South and, as bookstore manager, I earned their trust. A white Southerner asked if I was afraid when they were in the store. I didn’t understand why I would be. I worked in an all black office for Upward Bound. One of the college tutors took me to a black bar for lunch. I had African American friends at work.

And I was still in a bubble.

I read books and keep learning. Every time I read about White investigating another lynching, it was another punch to the gut. I still don’t understand how any human being could do such acts.

What have I come to understand with each book, like this one, is how deep racism is in our country, how it impacts our politics and society yet. It weighs me down. Can we be redeemed?

White was not a perfect man. His work came first, his family neglected. He divorced his long suffering wife and married the woman he had long been in love with, a white woman, alienating many blacks. He became a forgotten man, and by the time of his early death Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr. were new leaders. White Lies is a moving, horrific, narrative, restoring White to his proper place as a remarkable, courageous leader.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The name Walter F. White (1893-1955) should be more widely known to all Americans, especially those people who love and cherish democracy and believe that the United States, for all its boasts, should always strive to "form a more perfect Union." For no nation that calls itself a democracy is free if the rights of any of its citizens are threatened or stripped away from them.

Prior to reading White Lies, I had a dim awareness of who Walter White was. I knew that he was a light-skinned African American man (who could easily be mistaken for a white man) who had headed America's oldest civil rights organization, the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at a time when Jim Crow segregation was firmly set in law across the country (in particular, in the South) and the rights of African Americans were not respected by government and mainstream society. I had occasionally seen photos of Walter White, some showing him with historical figures more familiar to me such as Thurgood Marshall, Roy Wilkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. But he wasn't someone I gave much thought to. Besides, in all my U.S. history classes I had had in public school and college, his name never came up.

Then along came this book, which I first saw online many weeks ago, and I later watched a TV interview with its author. My curiosity was piqued and so, I went to the local library and borrowed the book. What a life this man had!

Walter White was born and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia at a time when Jim Crow segregation laws were being established and tightly maintained in the South --- in addition to voting rights being taken away from African Americans who, by virtue of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, were entitled to equal protection under law and the vote just like any other American --- where white supremacy was openly asserted and forcefully maintained through sanctioned intimidation and violence by racist white people and state governments. Indeed, when Walter White was in his early teens, he was a witness (along with his father, who was also a very light-skinned African American man) to the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot. At least 6 African Americans were murdered before his eyes. Years later, Walter White would say that it was this experience which decided for him what he would do with his life. He would stand with his fellow African Americans and do what he could to help them achieve their civil and constitutional rights.

Walter White became involved in the fight for civil rights while he was a student at Atlanta University during the 1910s. He and a number of African Americans in Atlanta were successful in thwarting the efforts of the Atlanta public school system to deny entry to the 7th grade for African American students in the city. (The prevailing attitude was that African Americans were incapable of higher learning and better suited as servants and farm workers.) It was also during this time that Walter White made the acquaintance of James Weldon Johnson, the distinguished African American writer, diplomat, educator, and civil rights activist with the nascent NAACP. Johnson had spoken at a gathering in Atlanta attended by Walter White, who later met Johnson and struck up an acquaintance with him.

Walter White graduated from Atlanta University in 1916 and went on to work for Standard Life (an insurance company) in Atlanta. For an African American at that time, it was a good job to have. Walter White was fairly content with his life. Then he received an invitation from James Weldon Johnson from New York City to come north and join the NAACP. This was in February 1918. There was nothing to hold him back in Atlanta. (Walter White had been subject to the draft following the U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917. So, when he went to the induction center, he was found to be physically unfit for military service.)

From the moment Walter White set down roots in New York and became fully immersed in his job with the NAACP, his life became one of unremitting struggle and toil. Over the next decade, Walter White undertook several undercover missions to the South --- assuming the guise of a white journalist --- "to investigate lynchings, racist murders, and riots [e.g., the destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921]. Then he would travel back north to report his findings to [African American] newspapers" --- as well as to the NAACP.

In reading the chapters of White Lies which dealt with this part of Walter White's life, I was deeply moved by the sheer guts of this man to hazard his life as much as he did. Never once did Walter White shrink from uncovering as much of the truth behind these racist crimes as he could. He had several close calls in which word was whispered round among some of the Southern whites with whom he was in contact of a "colored man passing for white" and what the locals would do to him were they to get their hands on him!

Toward the end of the 1920s, Walter White came to believe that the NAACP should begin to establish itself as an influential force in using suasion to compel political leaders to actively challenge Jim Crow segregation laws and practices, as well as hire African American lawyers (and any other lawyers committed to fighting for civil rights for African Americans) to fight against segregation in the courts.

Walter White's first direct involvement in electoral politics took place during the 1928 presidential campaign, when he was asked by Al Smith, formerly Governor of New York, and Democratic presidential candidate who happened to be Catholic, to use his influence to bring the African American vote into play for the Democrats. This was a big ask. From the days of Reconstruction and for up to 60 years afterwards, African Americans as a bloc, solidly voted Republican. After all, the Republican Party had been "the Party of Lincoln." The Democratic Party, by contrast, tended to support segregation and white supremacy in the South. But it had become clear to Walter White that the Republican Party had come to take the African American vote for granted and had retreated from its earlier support for full political and economic rights for African Americans. Walter White had a vision of the future of the U.S. political system, which he spelled out as follows:

"Eventually it appears to me that we are going to have an entirely new political alignment --- the Republicans will absorb the anti-Negro south and become, through the compromises necessary to gain that end, the relatively anti-Negro party, while the Negro will find refuge in the democratic party controlled by the north. ... Such an arrangement will not, I know, take place immediately but from present indications will occur before many decades have passed,"

Walter White would go on to be made Chief Executive of the NAACP in 1931, a position he would hold until his death.

White Lies also explores much of Walter White's personal life, his role in the Harlem Renaissance, and his own literary output. I cannot praise this book enough. It taught me so much about this remarkable man who literally worked himself to death.

Walter White led a fascinating life, and he was one of the most influential people in the U.S. in the 1930s and '40s, particularly for African Americans, but not exclusively for them. He was born into a light-skinned Black family in Atlanta, and he had fair skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. After he moved north to NYC to work for the very young NAACP, he often traveled back to the South as a white man to investigate lynchings, and his accounts were published in major newspapers and spread awareness in the North of lynching and white supremacist terror tactics. In his work for the NAACP, especially after he took over the executive leadership, he laid much of the groundwork for making the Black vote a formidable force in U.S. politics. He was also a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, as a writer as well as a mentor and connector for other writers and artists, both white and Black. He knew everybody who was anybody in Harlem, and eventually in national politics as well. I'm amazed that I had never heard of him. A big part of the reason his story fell into obscurity was the scandal of his divorce and second marriage (to a white woman) toward the end of life. This book is a very readable biography packed with insights into American history, especially the interwar period.

Reading this book right at the time the U.S. finally enacted a federal anti-lynching law was especially bittersweet. It really brought home how much pain, suffering, and death could have been averted had the federal government been empowered to try lynching cases when states and localities refused to.

A painful read. And WHY have I never heard of Walter White? A fascinating story of the history of the civil rights movement and particularly as it related to Walter White who was black but passed for white. Well written narrative with lots of human interest. But the corruption, cruelty and hatred was difficult to read.

Excellent book. I don't believe I had ever heard of Walter F. White before reading this book (I am a 60-yr.-old history buff), but I should have done. White was the Secretary of the NAACP from 1929 to 1955, and it was White who largely persuaded African-American voters to leave the GOP for the Democratic Party (in 1936, for the first time, the African-American vote went Democratic in a presidential election). In addition to his understanding of the power of the ballot box, it was White who hired Thurgood Marshall, knowing that the NAACP's victories in the courtroom could blow apart segregation one day. Moreover, White's connections with Eleanor Roosevelt and President Harry S. Truman led Truman in June-July 1948 -- in the middle of an election year -- to (1) become the first president to address a meeting of the NAACP, and (2) issue Executive Orders 9980 (desegrated the Federal work force) and 9981 (integrated the armed forces). And if anyone doubted White's courage, he spent 12 years, from 1918 to 1930, personally investigating some of the most horrific lynchings in American history.

White could conduct those investigations because he could "pass" for white, with blond hair and blue eyes. But given the savagery of whites he personally witnessed as a 13-yr.-old youth during the 1906 Atlanta race riots, Walter concluded "I knew I never wanted to be a white man."

Journalist A.J. Baime has done extensive research, and he writes brilliantly. I liked the book so much I ordered his earlier book on the first four months of Truman's presidency,

Walter White spent his life fighting against racial injustice in America. His dedication helped the NAACP obtain power and influence at a time when large segments of the country were hostile to the Black race. This book is not easy to read. Graphic descriptions of brutality, murder, and hatred abound. Walter White courageously traveled to the Southern States to investigate these atrocities. I can only imagine the trauma he must have suffered along with the families of the victims.

Several things saddened me as I was reading. First, that this country is now attempting to suppress knowledge of the shameful way it has treated some of its citizens. More than ever, everyone and especially schoolchildren need to learn the truth. Also, Mr. White was proud of the progress made by the NAACP and optimistic about the future of race relations. I fear that his optimism was not fully realized. Finally, Walter White has been largely forgotten. His legacy was damaged when he married a white woman. The man deserved some happiness. His private life warranted no criticism.

This is an important book that deserves wide readership. That is my hope.

Born with mixed-race heritage to parents who were born as slaves, Walter F. White's skin was light enough that he could easily "pass" as white. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance and an important member of the NAACP, White used his ability to lead a dual life, going undercover to investigate some of the worst racist murders in America, White used is access to shape public opinion, push forward the Civil Rights Movement, and alter the mission of the NAACP toward legal and political activism.

I absolutely loved A. J. Baime's biography of Walter F. White, which I picked up only because I loved his previous book on autoracing, Go Like Hell. Unsurprisingly, I had never heard of the NAACP leader and activist who had a handle in almost every major civil rights advance from 1920 to 1950. Baime focuses on White's life and details the race relations that wove through the decades of American history, making it a fascinating, albeit sobering, read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Mariner Books. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wow! This biography is a standout. Walter White was a black man born into a family whose lineage on both sides went back several generations of being owned as slaves. His great grandmother was forced by her owner to bare five children… the father of her children was future President, William Henry Harrison.

Walter was born looking very white and was able to “pass” as a white man which enabled him to work undercover for the NAACP during a dangerous time of lynchings in the South. The author does a good job balancing this flawed man with the valuable investigations and other work he did regarding:

- Civil Rights
- Anti-Lynching laws
- Harlem Renaissance
- Involvement with Harry Truman in bringing about change for equal pay & fair employment rules for blacks.
- Discrepancies in unfair wages & housing benefits after returning from WW2 for black veterans compared to the white soldiers.

I learned a lot about this brave man who was willing to take risks for others. Why on earth has it taken more than 100 years to get an anti-lynching law passed? FINALLY March 7, 2022!

I learned so much from reading this book. Not just about Walter White, but also about the dark past of this country. I learned that Walter and the NAACP led the fight for civil rights, before the big names like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr, picked up the torch. Several times the pages left me in tears. While reading White Lies, which at times describes racial violence from 100 years ago, I was saddened by the thought that there is till so much racial tension and violence today. I am better for having read this book. I am also happy to know that while reading this book, an anti-lynching law was finally passed (The Emmett Till Antilynching Act) - a century after Walter White first started the fight for one. In a time when several states around the country are trying to banish the teaching of America's atrocious history of lynchings and slavery, White Lies is ringing the bell loudly and reminding us not to forget. A well researched and well written book by Mr. Baime.

This was basically the book I had been writing since 2005. There was little in the book I didn’t already know. Baime peppered in some interesting stories about White — he left out a significant chunk. He never really captures how White felt about being biracial and able to pass, including triumphs and regrets. I only hope that there will now be room for more interpretations on this fascinating character.

This biography of Walter F. White, the leader of the NAACP for many years, was extremely well-written and very interesting. I had, of course, heard of Mr. White, but this book told me so much about this extraordinary man that I didn't know. He risked his health and life going undercover in the south to gather evidence about the lynchings and other murders of African American men and women to let the country and the world know of these horrors. He was a true American hero who deserved the admiration and respect of all his fellow Americans. I am very glad that I read this book!

While technically a biography, this is very broad in scope. This really is a book showcasing race in America for the first half of the 20th century. It doesn’t just focus on Walter the man, but also the context around his life and what he witnessed.

Things that are covered in varying levels of detail;
* The founding, running and leadership of the NAACP
* Various lynchings, massacres and attacks across the country
* The Harlem Renaissance, including White’s own writings
* Marcus Garvey/UNIA
* the KKK
* Voting disenfranchisem*nt
* Al Smith, Judge Parker, FDR, and the shifting allegiance of Black voters from Replication to Democrat
* The Great Depression
* WWII
* The beginning of the civil rights movement

Two things that stand out while reading this book; first just the sheer number of people this man spoke to, names both recognisable and not, and secondly the incredible competency and longevity the NAACP had using it’s logistical knowledge, social connections and the written word to make change.

This book never takes for granted the tremendous bravery Walter had, but doesn’t deny him the complexities any person contains. A very interesting read.

White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F White and America's Darkest Secret by AJ Baime is a well-researched and engaging biography that will inform, entertain, and also infuriate readers. To be sure, the anger (coupled with sadness) is not directed at the book but at what passed (and still passes) for American social justice.

What recollection I had of White was mostly in relation to his place in the Harlem Renaissance. I seem to recall also knowing he had been a journalist but I thought of him as with the NAACP and as a major contributor to the literary historical moment. This book not only showed me more of a well-rounded story but also one that included many chances taken.

There is a strong tendency when reading accounts from early to mid-20th century to pat ourselves on the back at how far we have come. Yet if we look closely at what is accomplished by the blatant actions of that time and the more subtle (mostly) actions of our time, we realize we haven't come nearly as far as we think. The modes of oppression are better hidden, but the final goals are still the same. Have there been improvements? Absolutely. Anywhere near what would be a very basic baseline of equality? No, most emphatically no.

The biography itself, as a biography, is excellent. The reader is able to follow along and, for the most part, understand both White and the historical moment. I think where this book moves beyond being simply a biography is the, for lack of a better term, behind the scenes look at many of the social, cultural, and political issues of the day. You become invested in both White the person and the United States as an as yet unfulfilled promise.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

With "White Lies" Baime seeks to rectify the scant mention of Walter White in the annals of civil rights activism and histories of the NAACP. After joining the NAACP in 1918 as an investigator White soon became one of the strongest and most progressive stalwarts of the nascent organization through his undercover work investigating lynchings and race riots in the South and Midwest. As a light skinned Black man White was able to interrogate both the victims and the perpetrators of violence, creating vivid reports that helped open the eyes of Americans to the darkest aspects of Jim Crow and the resurrection of the KKK. White's tireless work eventually led him into leadership. In this role he was responsible for moving the NAACP into stronger legal and political activism. White was personally responsible for bringing Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall into the organization. Baime's writing is first rate. He turns a solid biography into a surprisingly thrilling page turner and a gripping history lesson covering the early decades of the movement. Baime vividly brings the Harlem Renaissance to life and creates indelible reminders of racial violence that sadly continues today. One of the best biographies I've read in years. Highly recommended.

This book is the account of one individual ,who basically lived two lives.He was a black man who looked white.He was able to infiltrate white organization and locations so that he could gather first hand information on how the whites were lynching and killing blacks with impunity.
He was also one of many who helped spread the word about the newly developed NAACP.
This is a powerful and riveting book that lays out the timeline as to how the world was in the early 1900's.
This book takes you back to a time that is heart breaking and bloody. It just makes you cry which also makes you appreciate today, although in my opinion it hasn't really changed due to the fact,blacks are murdered every day through legal means,such as being shot by Cop.
I highly recommend this book for any and all ages, because this is history.
History should always be passed down.

This is an excellent look at the accomplishments of Walter White in his work for the early NAACP. The work and progress that this man and the organization made are truly amazing. So much of the progress that laid the work to stop The Jim Crowe south, and paved the way for a number of significant Supreme Court decisions. This also paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s. Sadly it makes me realize that we continue to face some of the same issues today with voter suppression, medical and legal disparities between the races. While we need to celebrate the progress outlined in this book we must continue the work and face the systemic racism still in the way of a truest equitable society.

A crucial read for everyone today. The similarities between the racial divisions of the USA circa 1920 and today are staggering, minus the physical acts of lynch mobs. I didn't interpret Baime's storytelling for wanting to further divide an already tense situation. But the cold facts are that there were atrocious things that happened in our nation's history--and were even publically supported by elected officials--that should be considered when trying to tackle contemporary issues.

The first step in cleaning up a mess is acknowledging the mess. Then, we can start fixing the mess. I have to believe that this is acheivable in our lifetime.

If you do not know the name Walter F White, now is the time to learn who this amazing man was. His work with race relations was amazing and brave. What he lived through and who his friends were reads like a Who’s Who of the Harlem Renaissance. He was a friend to presidents. His mission is not so terribly unlike those still fighting this battle today. It is an uplifting and empowering book about how important it is to vote and how that vote will change history. If you think you love social justice at all go out and read this work.

Wonderful book about a man that i did not previously knew even existed! The best part of this biography is that the author contextualises the life of White with other important historical moments in the US and abroad. So the reader has an anchor in the narrative that makes the lynchings and overt racism even more shocking. These horrors where not in a distant pass. There are still people live today that lived at the same time as American senators openly said that they uphold white supremacy and that black lives do not matter.

3.5 stars. Walter White was an amazingly influential person who has disappeared from American history. The book provides a good summary of his political and legal activities with the nascent NAACP and how he changed the mission of the NAACP. But it skims over important details of his personal life, such as his relationships with his first wife, his children, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Some of the text reads as if bits and pieces were cut and pasted together; the book would have benefited from a closer editing.

Excellent book! It's an extremely interesting biography of Walter F. White, the civil rights activist who led the NAACP. His work on lynching and voting rights for Black Americans from 1918 until his death in 1955 is covered in heart wrenching detail. The writer has a created a gripping story that is hard to put down. Highly recommended!!!

This is truly a tremendous biography of one of the most important, and perhaps most unsung, civil rights leaders in U.S. history. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about White and to anyone who is not afraid to read about some of the greatest atrocities ever committed upon Americans by Americans.

I started following, and participating, in the civil rights movement when Martin Luther King Jr, the unofficial leader, was being pressured by those on his left who were more militant, leaders such as Stokely Carmichael, H Rap Brown, to a certain extent, Julian Bond and John Lewis. Roy Wilkins, the head of the NAACP seemed to be an outdated relic of the past who did not do enough. I would occasionally read about Walter White, the predecessor to Wilkins at the NAACP who seemed to be even more of a relic.
This fine biography is an important correction for those like me who came of age in the sixties. Walter White was courageous, fought against overwhelming odds, and accomplished much. White was so light skinned he could pass for white, he used that as a NAACP official to investigate different lynchings in the twenties and thirties posing as a white reporter or some other good old boy, bantering with sources and finally coaxing them into telling him what really happened. He then used that information to write exposes. He was a great writer and had great credibility and his stories caught traction across the country. Even after earning the hatred of whites in the South he repeatedly returned to do investigation after investigation, risking his life each time.
White replaces W.E Dubois as head of the NAACP and pushed himself to exhaustion fighting for civil rights on so many fronts. He also became a successful author and was a vital part of the Harlem Renaissance. Frustrated with the Republican party for taking the Black vote for granted and not doing enough, he began lobbying Democrats, and was especially successful with Eleanor Roosevelt. White was as responsible as anyone for changing Black votes from Republican to Democrat.
If this biography has a shortcoming, it would be that it did not spend enough time on White's personal life, his complicated marriage, his pushing himself both professionally and socially that had to have come at a cost of being a father. These are discussed, but I found myself wanting more. But this was a great book that challenged many of my preconceptions

Excellent biography of Walter White, the second leader of the NAACP, but largely forgotten because of his affair with a white woman and white appearance. He should be as renown in the legacy of early civil rights activism as Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. White was smart, strategic, and tireless in his efforts to secure legal, political, and economic rights for black Americans. White was light enough to live as a white man, but chose not to after witnessing horrific racial violence in Atlanta as a child. He passed as white so was able to interview men who lynched or were part of mobs, and the political and justice establishment who supported them in the Jim Crow south. Most civil rights history doesn't focus enough on the horrific riots in Detroit in 1943, and in Harlem in 1935 and 1943, and the horrific lynching cases that took place until the 1960s (and the anti-lynching legislation that finally passed this year! So pathetic), or the legal battles to hold murderers accountable and to tackle discrimination. White was savvy enough to mobilize NAACP as a political organization, raise funds, and memorable events such as getting Roosevelt to dismantle segregation in the federally-funded industries, having Marion Anderson perform, getting Truman to hold a political rally with civil rights as a leading cause of the Democrats, and realigning black support from the Republicans to Democrats (and the loss of the South). White was also enamored of celebrity and enjoyed Harlem as a source of cultural power in the 20s. He championed Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall, among others. He was relentlessly positive and able to recognize opportunities to expand the NAACP into a powerhouse organization. White also survived the split from Du Bois, who was angered by the shift from NAACP as an intellectual and cultural force to a legal and political one (and the lack of funding after years for The Crisis). A necessary book and figure to study!

I'm not crazy about the title of this book, but I can't say it's untruthful. I feel it was chosen to sell books by offering tantilizing personal scandal, whereas the great theme of this book is not quite "lies" or "the double life."

I'm glad I read this history of the early years of the NAACP as told through the work and efforts of Walter F. White. It helped me understand the role and work of the NAACP and appreciate its founders particular genius.

I totally agree that this book tells about "America's Darkest Secret" which is lynching. I struggle mentally with how America found it so hard to take a stand against lynching. Americans like to think that we solved the issue of "states' rights" to slaves at the time of the Civil War. This history shows that Franklin Roosevelt still found that the conviction that southern states maintained the right to kill black people with such a ferocity that he didn't publicly oppose lynching because he believed he needed to preserve a political unity to achieve his programs.

Walter White was instrumental in achieving political power for black citizens by convincing his generation that neither the Democrat nor the Republican party had any interest in helping, as long as they thought black votes didn't matter. Until the Great Depression, black Americans had voted loyally Republican. White convinced them that they had to vote for whichever candidate they thought was best for black citizens. Suddenly Democratic candidates in the South won elections, and everyone sat up and noticed the blacks. Issues like lynching began to be talked about.

White's "Double Life" is important to the book in a small but significant way: Why is Walter White not better remembered today? Because just at the time of achieving victory for NAACP and against lynching, that "double life" got exposed and stained his legacy.

This is a biography of Walter White, who looked like a white person but identified as Black because of his Black lineage and family. People who met him thought he was white. This was important, because he went undercover to investigate lynchings in the South--brave man--and the white perpetrators would talk and even brag to him about what they'd done, whereas the Black people, when they found out he was actually Black, would talk to him, too. (If this sounds strange, search the internet for the "one-drop rule.") Then he was able to go back to New York City and publish the terrible details and try to get a federal anti-lynching law (which was introduced many times, with Southern states opposing it as an infringement on "states' rights," and was finally signed into law in 2022 by President Joe Biden, so it took more than 100 years to be passed). White became a major figure in the NAACP and worked tirelessly for the causes of Black Americans. He was an unsung hero in many ways; also a man with faults and quirks. This is not a page-turner but the subject is so important that I gave it an extra star. There are harrowing details of some lynchings in the book, but for some parts of history, we should be aware of the harrowing details.

Walter White was a person of great courage and drive. His parents had been born into slavery, but were light skinned because their mothers and foremothers had been forced to bear the children of their enslavers (one of whom went on to become a U.S. President). Consequently, Walter was fair skinned, with blond hair and blue eyes. He was recruited to work for the newly organized NAACP at a young age. To investigate lynchings and mass murders of African-Americans in the Jim Crow south, he bravely traveled to the sites of these horrors and was able to get the facts; white people would talk with him, sometimes bragging about what they’d done, because they thought he was white and they knew they could do horrible things with impunity. He reported the stories for various news papers and wrote to governors and prosecutors, but the perpetrators in the many lynchings he investigated were never punished. He rose to the leadership of the NAACP and led it to expand greatly in its membership and influence. A remarkable story, it’s unfortunate that it is not more widely known. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the struggle for civil rights in the United States.

White Lies is the true story of Walter White, who went undercover in Jim Crow America to expose racial violence.

Walter White was the President of NAACP for 24 years but his name is largely unknown. He came from an African-American family but was able to pass for white and pose as a journalist “covering” lynching. What he heard will chill your blood and sadly not surprise you. Lynch mobs would murder Black people for entirely invented reasons. Often the police didn’t just look away but actively abetted and even led the brutal murders.

An interesting part of WL discusses how White built a relationship with President Truman and eventually recruited him to speak at an NAACP convention, the first POTUS to do so. The author also includes his own supposition—that seems probable—that White may have built a relationship with J. Edgar Hoover by feeding him intel on the NAACP. In fact, White had a wide range of political relationships for the time (when “separate but equal” was legally acceptable until the very end of White’s life).

This is an intriguing if complicated examination of a civil rights leader.

4.5 ⭐️s.

An unfortunately obscure titan of civil rights. Walter White cut his teeth for the NAACP passing as a white man and investigating lynchings. His reports often contained the names of the lynchers and intimate details of the events. In zero of the cases was a conviction obtained and few even brought the killers to trial. As the new leader of the NAACP he changed the strategy of the organization to focus more on legal challenges and politicking. His meetings with Harry Truman were likely instrumental to desegregation of the military and federal bureaucracy.

The biography itself was a very enjoyable listen. Well organized and good mix of contextual background within the personal narrative. The focus on lynching in the early half of the book is important for American readers to gain a better understanding of the politics of post reconstruction and the meaning of “states rights”. Lynchers operated with complete impunity and little fear of punishment. Law enforcement officers were helpless at best, commonly apathetic, and horrifyingly too often actively participating. Lynching was also openly defended in congress.

How is it that I've never heard of Walter White. No, not THAT Walter White, Of Breaking Bad fame. I'm talking of a black man so fair-skinned that he could pass for white - and used that trait as camouflage to investigate public lynchings and race riots as a journalist for northern publications, then went on to become head of the NAACP for a quarter century, where he helped garner integration of the armed forces, convinced First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to become a board member and was the one to suggest Marion Anderson sing at the Lincoln Memorial when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to perform at Constitution Hall.

While investigating one lynching, White is questioning two men when he realizes he is speaking face-to-face with the murderers, who believing White is a white man, share their reasoning for the murder in all its hateful ugliness. A man willing to put it all on the line to get the story, then do so much to change the circ*mstances that made such hate normal deserves to be better known than his fictional meth-making TV namesake.