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White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America’s Darkest Secret
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 forever
Walter 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. White’s 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 conflict—much like the story of race in America. Starting out as an obscure activist, White ultimately became Black America’s most prominent leader. A character study of White’s life and career with all these complexities has never been rendered, until now.
By the award-winning, best-selling author of The Accidental President,Dewey Defeats Truman, and The Arsenal of Democracy,White Lies uncovers the life of a civil rights leader unlike any other.
Walter 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. White’s 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 conflict—much like the story of race in America. Starting out as an obscure activist, White ultimately became Black America’s most prominent leader. A character study of White’s life and career with all these complexities has never been rendered, until now.
By the award-winning, best-selling author of The Accidental President,Dewey Defeats Truman, and The Arsenal of Democracy,White Lies uncovers the life of a civil rights leader unlike any other.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2022
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December 12, 2021
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.
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.
September 2, 2022
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.
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.
February 27, 2025
This incredibly well-researched nonfiction book was a delight to read. I was introduced to Walter White. Nope, not the character from “Breaking Bad.”
Rather I read about a shining star in the NAACP and the Harlem Renaissance. The book is easy to read, not dry at all, and contains wonderful historical photographs. I learned so much from this book. I highly recommend it.
Rather I read about a shining star in the NAACP and the Harlem Renaissance. The book is easy to read, not dry at all, and contains wonderful historical photographs. I learned so much from this book. I highly recommend it.
April 15, 2022
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.
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.
October 7, 2022
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.
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.
May 16, 2023
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.
March 26, 2023
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, The Accidental President. The reason I did not give White Lies five stars is because I thought it played up the likely negative effects of White's relationship and subsequent (second) marriage with Poppy Cannon (a Caucasian woman), but then blithely blew through them in a mere 14 pages. (There were severe consequences; to take just one example, Walter's children wanted nothing to do with him afterwards). Nonetheless, I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in 20th century America.
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, The Accidental President. The reason I did not give White Lies five stars is because I thought it played up the likely negative effects of White's relationship and subsequent (second) marriage with Poppy Cannon (a Caucasian woman), but then blithely blew through them in a mere 14 pages. (There were severe consequences; to take just one example, Walter's children wanted nothing to do with him afterwards). Nonetheless, I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in 20th century America.
February 10, 2022
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.
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.
May 2, 2022
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!
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!
March 18, 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.
February 3, 2022
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.
June 30, 2025
Before reading White Lies, I had not heard of Walter White or his involvement in the NAACP. The tremendous role and influence of this one man in battling lynching, discrimination, and segregation are astonishing. Beyond Walter White, this book significantly expanded my knowledge regarding U.S. race relations from the 1910 up through WWII. I truly appreciate having that hole filled.
The book flows easily, reading more like a novel than typical non-fiction. The author’s deep research is on full display, supplementing well the historical facts of which I was already aware. A very worthy read.
The book flows easily, reading more like a novel than typical non-fiction. The author’s deep research is on full display, supplementing well the historical facts of which I was already aware. A very worthy read.
September 11, 2024
This is a sometimes-hard book to read. A biography of Walter White, it is also a sad commentary on US race relations post-Civil War through the second world war. In my mind, civil rights became a hot issue in the 50's and 60's, but many brave men and women paved the way in the early 20th century, including our title character, about whom I had never heard. Eye-opening and heart-wrenching. The Harlem Renaissance, the Jazz Age, the NAACP, the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration, Jim Crow laws, "separate but equal," "passing," and the horrors of lynching were all a part of the story line. A very worthwhile read.
February 26, 2022
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!
September 10, 2025
An exceptional book! Author Baime has done a masterful job of telling Walter F. White's story, carefully crafting and entwining it with the history of world wars, the great depression, the Harlem Renaissance and every other critical element of American history from the gilded age to the beginnings of the modern Civil Rights movement. This book provides an indepth view of the man Walter White and the organization he did so much to shape, the N.A.A.C.P.
Meticulous and captivating is the writing that takes the reader along with White as he shape shifts as a White or a Negro in either the South or the North. A truly fascinating read that places Walter F. White in the pantheon of great Civil Rights activists.
Meticulous and captivating is the writing that takes the reader along with White as he shape shifts as a White or a Negro in either the South or the North. A truly fascinating read that places Walter F. White in the pantheon of great Civil Rights activists.
April 10, 2025
- p. 320 - "'I am one of the two in the color of my skin; I am the other in my spirit and my heart. It is only a love of both which binds the two together in me...I am white and I am black, and know that there is no difference. Each casts a shadow, and all shadows are dark.'"
"White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret" by A.J. Baime was the March selection for my Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity book club. This happened to coincide with several related events - CONNECTIONS! As I was preparing for the group's discussion, American Experience's "Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP" was featured on PBS. It closely paralleled Baime's book. At the same time, while traveling home from Florida, I had the great fortune to follow the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail (a part of our awesome National Park System), visited the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, and walked across the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge! Finally, I visited the Lorainne Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, sight of the assassination of Martin Luther King. Sobering! All of these experiences reminded me how important it is to revisit our history. Each time that we do, we learn so much that we may not have know - life-long learning is vital to our survival as a nation and as a people. AND these experiences were a solemn reminder that countless individuals have given their lives to insure and protect the rights and freedoms that we enjoy!!!
"White Lies" is a biography of the life of Walter F. White and, in a sense, of the NAACP. White was the descendant of a white slave master and a black slave. He had straight blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin and was described as, "a black man in a white body." This would prove to be both a curse and a blessing. Though he could easily have passed as a white man, he chose to live in the black middle class. He was not always accepted in this community because of his light skin color. However, his skin color allowed him to move in and out of the white man's world, and because he was seen as white in this world, people told him things they never would have had he been black. This led to his career as a journalist, where he investigated and reported on lynchings of black individuals throughout the United States. This eventually led to his work with the NAACP, where he played the key leadership role in this organization. He had a major impact on finding justice for those who were wrongly accused and harmed, changing laws, leading the Harlem Renaissance, and realigning the ideologies of the Republican and Democratic parties. It should also be noted that White published several successful books in his lifetime (ie; "A Man Called White"). Though he was a central figure in Civil Rights matters, why is it that most have no knowledge of Walter F. White and that his story is largely forgotten?
Key takeaways:
1. This is an excellently researched work! Baime includes notes within the text, and over 40 pages of endnotes. Many direct quotes are used to support the text. He also includes photographs to back-up his work (I wish that there had been many more). And, as I said earlier, his work paralleled the PBS documentary.
2. The writing here is excellent! Baime includes details that lift the story off of the page. We can often see, hear, feel, smell, and taste what Baime describes. And, yes, those details are often disturbing. But that adds to the significance of the story.
3. I listened to the book as I read from a hard copy. Though the reader was excellent, it bothered me that he occasionally changed the text but just kept going. Most wouldn't know the difference because they simply listen to the book but, since I was reading along with a hard copy, this bothered me.
4. And the significance of this book, in light of current politics can't be understated. Why is it that we don't learn from our history and that we seem to slowly take tiny steps forward, only to quickly take giant steps backward?
5. Related to #4 are the many lessons that we apparently need to be reminded of, since we seem to have forgotten:
- p. 155 - As W.E.B. Du Bois said in "The Shape of Fear" in 1926 - "The civilized world today and the world half-civilized and uncivilized are desperately afraid. The Shape of Fear looms over them. Germany fears the Jew, England fears the Indian; America fears the Negro, the Christian fears the Moslem, Europe fears Asia, Protestant fears Catholic, Religion fears Science. Above all, Wealth fears Democracy. These fears and others are ancient or at least longstanding. But they are renewed and revivified today because the world has at present a severe case of nerves."
- p. 156 - "Fame always has its consequences."
- p. 162 - "The first thing to understand about the phenomenon, Walter wrote in chapter 1 of his book, was 'the mind of the lyncher.' Killing with immunity could only occur in a community in which such practices were accepted by that community. The phenomenon took root in places 'where leaders of the mob are exalted as men of courage and action,' Walter wrote. Killing necessitated absolute power of one individual over another, and once that power, Walter theorized, was ordained in a community by the statehouse, the jailhouse, the pulpit, the lynching industry began to thrive."
- p. 166 - "Lynching was a means to keep African Americans 'in their place' through intimidation, Walter argued. They were to be uneducated. They were beholden to the farms. Those strategies were used not only to keep wealthy white men in power, Walter reasoned, but also to keep poor white men empowered over Black men."
- p. 166 - "Behind all of this, Walter postulated, was fear. Fear of the loss of profits. Fear of the loss of mythical white supremacy. Fear of having to compete with the Black race for simple resources such as food and jobs. Fear, ultimately, of losing control."
- p. 167 - In the end, Walter's many ideas boiled down to an equation. If you take that fear, place behind it the power of politicians and the pulpit, add in modern inventions of cars and telephones and newspapers that could be used to organize lynch mobs and large crowds of spectators, you end up with ritualistic and deeply symbolic orgies of torture and violence, rendered before white men, women, and children who considered themselves Christians, patriotic Americans, and upstanding figures in their communities."
- p. 172, p. 299 - the interesting history of how the Democratic and Republican parties began to switch ideologies during the late 1920's - I think that most Americans are not aware of this shift
- p. 206 - "Whether they were guilty of not, their right to a fair trial, their rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, had been violated." - many cases, past and present, demonstrate this fact
- p. 215 - "Had he invented the shotgun? If he had, what other stories had he invented? How much of Walter White's public persona had he mythologized? How much was a creation of his own imagination? His colleagues, his family, and in the future his enemies - all had an opinion. The one he would hear the most, form this part of his life onward, was that he had mythologized his own race. That he was not really Black at all. That he used the race issue to create his career, even to earn money. These were accusations he would fight against, with unwavering conviction, until the day he died."
- p. 223 - "'Even as he lay dying my father said to us, "No matter what happens, you must love, not hate."'"
p. 234 and 236 - "He debunked the myth that Black men were lynched for raping white women, and that the judicial system was inadequate to try these men, if in fact rape accusations were legitimate....the claim that lynching...was necessary to protect white women from the Black rapist...Ellison 'Cotton Ed' Smith of South Carolina said on the Senate floor...'Nothing is more important to us than the purity and sanctity of our womanhood and, so help us God, no one shall violate it without paying the just penalty which would be inflicted on the beast who invades the sanctity of our womanhood.'"
- p. 250 - "'None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, and Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped pick us up.' Thurgood Marshall, American's first Black Supreme Court justice"
- p. 265 - the goal of the NAACP (Langston Hughes) - "'...its real work is sustaining the basic truths of American democracy by clearing away the prejudice and bigotry and anti-democratic debris at the base of the great pillars of our national faith. It is made plain that when democracy for any minority is in danger, the democracy for all is in danger.'"
- p. 287 - the goal of the NAACP ("To Secure These Rights") - "Our American heritage...teaches that to be secure in the rights he wishes for himself, each man must be willing to respect the rights of other men. This is the conscious recognition of a basic moral principle: all men are created equal as well as free. Stemming from this principle is the obligation to build social institutions that will guarantee equality of opportunity to all men...We abhor the totalitarian arrogance which makes one man say that he will respect another man as his equal only if he has 'my race, my religion, my political views, my social position.'"
6. The inclusion of the work of Roy Wilkins was particularly interesting, especially to a Minnesotan. I learned a lot that I did not know in this regard.
7. Shortly after he stepped down from his NAACP leadership position, and after his divorce from Gladys, White married a white woman, Poppy Cannon, in 1949. This action, to this day, remains controversial. - p. 309 - "Letters arrived by the bagful from indignant NAACP members, arguing that Walter was palying right into the hands of bigots, lunchers, and demagogues who for generations had made excuses for their violent actions claiming that Black men were after their white women....'He has given credence...to the inaccurate charge of the white South that the highest aspiration of Negroes is to invade the white race.'" - many surmise that this may be the reason that some many know so little, if anything, about Walter F. White - maintained, however, (p. 312) "'Throughout my entire life, I have lived by one principle - that there is but one race, the human race. I have fought and always will fight against any artificial barriers among the peoples of the world based on race, creed, color or caste.'" - his influence, from this point on, was greatly diminished
Highly, highly recommended reading! I can guarantee that the reader will learn many things that he/she were not previously aware of.
"White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret" by A.J. Baime was the March selection for my Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity book club. This happened to coincide with several related events - CONNECTIONS! As I was preparing for the group's discussion, American Experience's "Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP" was featured on PBS. It closely paralleled Baime's book. At the same time, while traveling home from Florida, I had the great fortune to follow the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail (a part of our awesome National Park System), visited the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, and walked across the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge! Finally, I visited the Lorainne Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, sight of the assassination of Martin Luther King. Sobering! All of these experiences reminded me how important it is to revisit our history. Each time that we do, we learn so much that we may not have know - life-long learning is vital to our survival as a nation and as a people. AND these experiences were a solemn reminder that countless individuals have given their lives to insure and protect the rights and freedoms that we enjoy!!!
"White Lies" is a biography of the life of Walter F. White and, in a sense, of the NAACP. White was the descendant of a white slave master and a black slave. He had straight blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin and was described as, "a black man in a white body." This would prove to be both a curse and a blessing. Though he could easily have passed as a white man, he chose to live in the black middle class. He was not always accepted in this community because of his light skin color. However, his skin color allowed him to move in and out of the white man's world, and because he was seen as white in this world, people told him things they never would have had he been black. This led to his career as a journalist, where he investigated and reported on lynchings of black individuals throughout the United States. This eventually led to his work with the NAACP, where he played the key leadership role in this organization. He had a major impact on finding justice for those who were wrongly accused and harmed, changing laws, leading the Harlem Renaissance, and realigning the ideologies of the Republican and Democratic parties. It should also be noted that White published several successful books in his lifetime (ie; "A Man Called White"). Though he was a central figure in Civil Rights matters, why is it that most have no knowledge of Walter F. White and that his story is largely forgotten?
Key takeaways:
1. This is an excellently researched work! Baime includes notes within the text, and over 40 pages of endnotes. Many direct quotes are used to support the text. He also includes photographs to back-up his work (I wish that there had been many more). And, as I said earlier, his work paralleled the PBS documentary.
2. The writing here is excellent! Baime includes details that lift the story off of the page. We can often see, hear, feel, smell, and taste what Baime describes. And, yes, those details are often disturbing. But that adds to the significance of the story.
3. I listened to the book as I read from a hard copy. Though the reader was excellent, it bothered me that he occasionally changed the text but just kept going. Most wouldn't know the difference because they simply listen to the book but, since I was reading along with a hard copy, this bothered me.
4. And the significance of this book, in light of current politics can't be understated. Why is it that we don't learn from our history and that we seem to slowly take tiny steps forward, only to quickly take giant steps backward?
5. Related to #4 are the many lessons that we apparently need to be reminded of, since we seem to have forgotten:
- p. 155 - As W.E.B. Du Bois said in "The Shape of Fear" in 1926 - "The civilized world today and the world half-civilized and uncivilized are desperately afraid. The Shape of Fear looms over them. Germany fears the Jew, England fears the Indian; America fears the Negro, the Christian fears the Moslem, Europe fears Asia, Protestant fears Catholic, Religion fears Science. Above all, Wealth fears Democracy. These fears and others are ancient or at least longstanding. But they are renewed and revivified today because the world has at present a severe case of nerves."
- p. 156 - "Fame always has its consequences."
- p. 162 - "The first thing to understand about the phenomenon, Walter wrote in chapter 1 of his book, was 'the mind of the lyncher.' Killing with immunity could only occur in a community in which such practices were accepted by that community. The phenomenon took root in places 'where leaders of the mob are exalted as men of courage and action,' Walter wrote. Killing necessitated absolute power of one individual over another, and once that power, Walter theorized, was ordained in a community by the statehouse, the jailhouse, the pulpit, the lynching industry began to thrive."
- p. 166 - "Lynching was a means to keep African Americans 'in their place' through intimidation, Walter argued. They were to be uneducated. They were beholden to the farms. Those strategies were used not only to keep wealthy white men in power, Walter reasoned, but also to keep poor white men empowered over Black men."
- p. 166 - "Behind all of this, Walter postulated, was fear. Fear of the loss of profits. Fear of the loss of mythical white supremacy. Fear of having to compete with the Black race for simple resources such as food and jobs. Fear, ultimately, of losing control."
- p. 167 - In the end, Walter's many ideas boiled down to an equation. If you take that fear, place behind it the power of politicians and the pulpit, add in modern inventions of cars and telephones and newspapers that could be used to organize lynch mobs and large crowds of spectators, you end up with ritualistic and deeply symbolic orgies of torture and violence, rendered before white men, women, and children who considered themselves Christians, patriotic Americans, and upstanding figures in their communities."
- p. 172, p. 299 - the interesting history of how the Democratic and Republican parties began to switch ideologies during the late 1920's - I think that most Americans are not aware of this shift
- p. 206 - "Whether they were guilty of not, their right to a fair trial, their rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, had been violated." - many cases, past and present, demonstrate this fact
- p. 215 - "Had he invented the shotgun? If he had, what other stories had he invented? How much of Walter White's public persona had he mythologized? How much was a creation of his own imagination? His colleagues, his family, and in the future his enemies - all had an opinion. The one he would hear the most, form this part of his life onward, was that he had mythologized his own race. That he was not really Black at all. That he used the race issue to create his career, even to earn money. These were accusations he would fight against, with unwavering conviction, until the day he died."
- p. 223 - "'Even as he lay dying my father said to us, "No matter what happens, you must love, not hate."'"
p. 234 and 236 - "He debunked the myth that Black men were lynched for raping white women, and that the judicial system was inadequate to try these men, if in fact rape accusations were legitimate....the claim that lynching...was necessary to protect white women from the Black rapist...Ellison 'Cotton Ed' Smith of South Carolina said on the Senate floor...'Nothing is more important to us than the purity and sanctity of our womanhood and, so help us God, no one shall violate it without paying the just penalty which would be inflicted on the beast who invades the sanctity of our womanhood.'"
- p. 250 - "'None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, and Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped pick us up.' Thurgood Marshall, American's first Black Supreme Court justice"
- p. 265 - the goal of the NAACP (Langston Hughes) - "'...its real work is sustaining the basic truths of American democracy by clearing away the prejudice and bigotry and anti-democratic debris at the base of the great pillars of our national faith. It is made plain that when democracy for any minority is in danger, the democracy for all is in danger.'"
- p. 287 - the goal of the NAACP ("To Secure These Rights") - "Our American heritage...teaches that to be secure in the rights he wishes for himself, each man must be willing to respect the rights of other men. This is the conscious recognition of a basic moral principle: all men are created equal as well as free. Stemming from this principle is the obligation to build social institutions that will guarantee equality of opportunity to all men...We abhor the totalitarian arrogance which makes one man say that he will respect another man as his equal only if he has 'my race, my religion, my political views, my social position.'"
6. The inclusion of the work of Roy Wilkins was particularly interesting, especially to a Minnesotan. I learned a lot that I did not know in this regard.
7. Shortly after he stepped down from his NAACP leadership position, and after his divorce from Gladys, White married a white woman, Poppy Cannon, in 1949. This action, to this day, remains controversial. - p. 309 - "Letters arrived by the bagful from indignant NAACP members, arguing that Walter was palying right into the hands of bigots, lunchers, and demagogues who for generations had made excuses for their violent actions claiming that Black men were after their white women....'He has given credence...to the inaccurate charge of the white South that the highest aspiration of Negroes is to invade the white race.'" - many surmise that this may be the reason that some many know so little, if anything, about Walter F. White - maintained, however, (p. 312) "'Throughout my entire life, I have lived by one principle - that there is but one race, the human race. I have fought and always will fight against any artificial barriers among the peoples of the world based on race, creed, color or caste.'" - his influence, from this point on, was greatly diminished
Highly, highly recommended reading! I can guarantee that the reader will learn many things that he/she were not previously aware of.
Read
February 27, 2022While 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 disenfranchisement
* 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.
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 disenfranchisement
* 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.
December 15, 2021
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.
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.
February 24, 2022
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.
February 15, 2022
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.
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.
April 18, 2022
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.
May 24, 2022
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.
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.
April 25, 2022
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.
May 25, 2022
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.
August 8, 2022
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.
April 5, 2022
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!!!
May 18, 2022
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.
May 31, 2023
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
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
April 21, 2022
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!
July 28, 2023
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.
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.
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