NAACP executive secretary who helped bring national attention and organizing power to the Columbia case
Walter White was born in Atlanta in 1893 and became one of the most influential civil rights leaders of his generation. Although he was Black, his light complexion allowed him to pass as white while investigating lynchings and racial violence for the NAACP. He later served as the organization’s executive secretary, leading national campaigns against lynching, segregation and racial discrimination.
After the 1946 raid, White joined the NAACP team sent to Columbia and helped make the case a national civil rights cause. He organized the National Committee for Justice in Columbia, Tennessee, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt and Channing Tobias, which circulated the NAACP pamphlet Terror in Tennessee and built public support for the defendants. White was also traveling with Thurgood Marshall, Z. Alexander Looby and reporter Harry Raymond when police stopped their car and arrested Marshall on the night of his near-lynching.
White continued leading the NAACP until his death in 1955. His work helped turn Columbia from a local prosecution into part of the national campaign against racial violence and unequal justice.
Walter White
