Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-22
Walter White, NAACPLeoder
Who Fought Segregation, Dies
Only 1-64th Negro,
He Chose to Work for
Race He Called Own

Walter White, executive secre-
tary of the National Association
for the Advancement Of Colored
People and lifelong champion Of
Negro rights, died last night in
New York at the age of 81.
Ill for several years, he died
of heart disease in his home.
Mr.. Whites career devoted to
improving the lot of colored peo-
pie was climaxed by the Supreme
Courts ban against segregation
in public schools last year.
He had been a determined
fighter against segregation, and
despite i'll health had been in the
front ranks of those pressing the
suit that finally resulted in the
Supreme Court ruling.
Familiar Figure Here.
Mr.. White was a familiar fig
ure in Washington. Several
years ago, in 1899. he helped
stage an open-air concert for
Marian Anderson after she had
been refused the use of Consti-
tuition Hall by the Daughters of
the American Revolution on the
| grounds she was a Negro.
Then Secretary of Interior
Harold Ickes made the mall in
front of the Lincoln Memorial
available for the concert. More
than $4,000 persons attended.
White in complexion as well
as in name, Walter White was
black by sympathy and on the
basis of a diluted strain of Negro
blood. He might have had a
career as a white man; he chose
a career as a colored man to
work for the race he claimed as
his own.
Fitted Special Job
He became assistant secretary
of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored
People in 1918. The organiza-
ton employed him because it
wanted a colored man who could
pass as white to investigate
lynchings. In 1881 he became
secretary of the organization.
In the opinion of many, he
provided the chief spark in the
organizations drive to end dis
elimination on the basis of color.
He lived to see segregation in
housing, schools, interstate travel
on trains, restaurants, all banned
by court orders, and a general
decline in distinctions based on
color alone.
Fair skin, blue eyes and blond
hair made him more distinct
from Negroes than from whites.
E. A. Hooton, Harvard anthro-
pologist, estimated Mr.. White was
1/64th Negro, which would mean
a Negro ancestor five genera
tons back.
Mr.. White was born in At
lanta on July /, 1893. His father,
George White, was a mail COL
lector who is said to have suf-
fered an injury and then to
have died of neglect due to his
being a colored man.
Race Riot Shaped Career
In 1906 there were race riots
in Atlanta. From the Whites
neat, eight-room house, con-
trasting with the rest Of. the
rundown neighborhood, young
White saw a mob turned back
by gun fire. He wrote later that
then, at the age of 13, he fully
realized he was a Negro.
He is said to have shown
marked ability at his studies as
a youth. He entered Atlanta
University and received his A. B
degree there in 1916. Two years
later, he went to New York and
to the NAACP job.
During the next 80 years he
was to travel 2 million miles in
the interest of his race. investi-
gate Al lynchings and eight race
riots. He also brought hundreds
of legal battles over civil rights
and liberties to the courts.
Watched Fate Of LEGISLATION.
He was a steady occupant of
a seat in the Senate and House