*BLACK HISTORY FACT* Walter Francis White, an African-American activist, was born on this date in 1893. Because Atlanta had Jim Crow laws, as a child, White attended segregated Black schools, sat in the rear of buses, and experienced many of the other indignities of racism. When he was 13 years-old, White witnessed a race riot in Atlanta. He went on to attend Atlanta University, and, after graduating in 1916, he worked for Standard Life, a major African American Insurance Company and also became secretary of the Atlanta branch of the NAACP. During this time, White organized a campaign to improve African-American public facilities in the city. Soon after, James Weldon Johnson offered him a full-time post at the NAACP. Whites main task there was to investigate lynchings and race riots. His light skin enabled him to pass as a white man and this helped him acquire information about racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. White was assistant secretary of the NAACP from 1918 to 1929 and replaced Johnson in 1931. White presided over the organization during the Depression, New Deal, World War II, and the Supreme Courts historic Brown v. Board of Education decision out-lawing school segregation. #JoeMadison #SiriusXM #UrbanView #History SiriusXM Urban View
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 13:35:48 +0000