Triumph of Melanin

During Black History Month in elementary and high school most of us learned of the same people year after year. Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman, etc. – make no mistake these were incredible black Americans who paved the way for us to have the freedoms and resources we do today. However, The Flow would like to shed light on brothers and sisters who you may not have heard. 

  

Walter Francis White was born in Atlanta, Georgia on July 1^st, 1893. Despite his white skin, blue eyes, and blond hair, White had black ancestry and he and his family considered themselves Negroes. White attended African American schools and sat at the back of the bus.  White graduated from Atlanta University in 1916 and went on to work for a large insurance company. Shortly after, he also began to work for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as secretary of the Atlanta branch. White organized a campaign to African American public facilities in the city of Atlanta. He was offered a full-time position at the NAACP in light of his work of the community. White used his light skin to his advantage while working for the NAACP to conduct investigations concerning the lynching and race riots in the South. He managed to “pass” as a white man and also maintain his identity as a black man his standing in the black community. It was a dangerous job but while working for the NAACP, Walter Francis White was able to investigate 41 lynching incidents and 8 race riots. He also wrote several critically acclaimed novels and non-fiction pieces including his autobiography.  White died on March 21^st, 1955.