num_pages: 384
description: A riveting biography of Walter White a little-known Black civil rights leader who passed for white in order to investigate racist murders help put the NAACP on the map and change the racial identity of America foreverWalter White led two lives: one as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and the NAACP in the early twentieth century; the other as a white newspaperman who covered lynching crimes in the Deep South at the blazing height of racial violence. Born mixed race and with very fair skin and straight hair White was able to pass for white. He leveraged this ambiguity as a reporter bringing to light the darkest crimes in America and helping to plant the seeds of the civil rights movement. Whites risky career led him to lead a double life. He was simultaneously a second-class citizen subject to Jim Crow laws at home and a widely respected professional with full access to the white world at work. His life was fraught with internal and external conflictmuch like the story of race in America. Starting out as an obscure activist White ultimately became Black Americas most prominent leader. A character study of Whites life and career with all these complexities has never been rendered until now. By the award-winning best-selling author of The Accidental PresidentDewey Defeats Truman and The Arsenal of DemocracyWhite Lies uncovers the life of a civil rights leader unlike any other. 
language: English
title: White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret
publisher: Mariner Books