White, Walter Francis, 1893–1955, American civil-rights leader, b. Atlanta, Ga., grad. Atlanta Univ., 1916. From 1931 until his death he was secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and tirelessly fought against racial discrimination and violence in the United States. He served on several government commissions. Whites defense of African-American rights is vividly recorded in his autobiography, A Man Called White (1948). His works include Fire in the Flint (1924), Flight (1926), Rope and Faggot (1929), Rising Wind (1945), and How Far the Promised Land (published posthumously in 1955).

See biography by P. Cannon (Mrs. W. White), Gentle Knight (1956).