Resurrecting Walter White

The NAACP's influential but largely forgotten boss who fought to end segregation in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s gets a new book.

Walter White -- the dynamic, brave, talented and politically influential little guy who made the NAACP into a powerful civil rights organization and changed the country for the better -- has been virtually forgotten by history.

Walter F. White (center) poses with civil rights activist Roy Wilkins (left) and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

An important recurring character in my 2017 book, '30 Days a Black Man,’ White was a civil rights superstar of the 1930s-1955 who should be famous today, but isn’t.

The new book by A.J. Baime, ‘White Lies,’ not quite on sale yet, will explain why 99 percent of the people living today never heard of Walter White or know him only as the main fictional character in 'Breaking Bad.'

For some background, The New York Post has this story. The headline sums the reason White’s been lost to history:

A black man posed as white to expose racism — then was shunned for interracial affair

Starting here, you can read more about how Walter White helped Pittsburgh journalist Ray Sprigle pull off his undercover mission into the Jim Crow South of 1948.