Although his two novels-- The Fire in the Flint (1924) and Flight (1926)--are his sole contributions to fictive literature, Walter White was a significant figure in the Harlem Renaissance period. From the time he began working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1918, until he became executive secretary of that organization in 1931, and until his death in 1955, White was an unceasing advocate for equality and democracy in the United States.

Fair-skinned, blond, blue-eyed, and with Anglo features, White was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 1 July 1893 to George and Madeline White. During the race riot of 1906 in Atlanta, he stood beside his father, armed with a rifle, ready to defend the family home against possible attack by the white mob foraging the neighborhood. He grew up and went to public school in the Atlanta area and attended Atlanta University for his secondary education and his bachelor's...