White Lies

Walter White led two lives. In one he was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and of the NAACP in the early twentieth century. In the other he was a white newspaperman covering lynchings in the Deep South at the height of racial violence. Born mixed race, with very fair skin and straight hair, White could pass for white, and he used that ambiguity as a reporter to investigate racist murders and bring some of America's darkest crimes to light. His work helped put the NAACP on the map and plant the seeds of the civil rights movement.

The double life carried a heavy cost. At home he was a second-class citizen under Jim Crow laws, while at work he was a respected professional with full access to the white world. His life was marked by internal and external conflict, much like the story of race in America itself.

White began as an obscure activist and ended up as Black America's most prominent leader. This biography is a character study of his life and career in all their complexity.

A. J. Baime is also the author of The Accidental President, Dewey Defeats Truman and The Arsenal of Democracy.