{"id":63047,"date":"2022-02-13T05:07:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T05:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=63047"},"modified":"2022-02-13T05:07:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T05:07:04","slug":"born-in-atlanta-in-1893-white-was-defined-as-black-by-southern-laws-and-customs-yet-his-enslaved-forebears-were-raped-by-white-owners-making-him-according-to-family-history-a-great-grandson-of-wi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=63047","title":{"rendered":"Born in Atlanta in 1893, White was defined as Black by Southern laws and customs. Yet his enslaved forebears were raped by white owners, making him, according to family history, a great-grandson of William Henry Harrison. With fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair, he could easily have passed as white and ensured himself a better life."},"content":{"rendered":"

The double life of the title [White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America\u2019s Darkest Secret<\/em><\/a>] plays out several ways. Born in Atlanta<\/a> in 1893, [Walter] White<\/a> was defined as Black by Southern laws and customs. Yet his enslaved forebears were raped by white owners, making him, according to family history, a great-grandson of William Henry Harrison<\/a>. With fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair, he could easily have passed as white<\/a> and ensured himself a better life.<\/p>\n

Instead, White worked doggedly to force change. [A. J.] Baime<\/a> depicts him as a superhero with a secret identity. In the 1920s he lived in Harlem<\/a> as a Black man, taking on a crucial role in the fledgling NAACP<\/a> while also fostering the Harlem Renaissance<\/a> by nurturing Black artists like Langston Hughes<\/a>, Claude McKay<\/a> and Zora Neale Hurston<\/a>. He invited them to his high-profile parties, introduced them to white publishers like Mark Van Doren and Alfred Knopf<\/a>. (His own books were also well received.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stuart Miller, \u201cHe risked his life to become a founding father of civil rights. Why was he forgotten?<\/a>\u201d The Los Angeles Times<\/em>, February 9, 2022. https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/books\/story\/2022-02-09\/walter-f-white-a-founder-of-civil-rights-white-lies-biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The double life of the title [White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America\u2019s Darkest Secret] plays out several ways. Born in Atlanta in 1893, [Walter] White was defined as Black by Southern laws and customs. Yet his enslaved forebears were raped by white owners, making him, according to family history, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[32839,33001,32999,33000,899,2708,32983,13272,28260,6786,1929,32998],"class_list":["post-63047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excerpts","tag-a-j-baime","tag-alfred-a-knopf-sr","tag-alfred-knopf","tag-mark-van-doren","tag-naacp","tag-national-association-for-the-advancement-of-colored-people","tag-stuart-miller","tag-the-los-angeles-times","tag-walter-f-white","tag-walter-francis-white","tag-walter-white","tag-william-henry-harrison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63048,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63047\/revisions\/63048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}