Walter F. White (1893-1955) was an American author and civil rights leader born in Atlanta, Georgia. From 1929 until 1955, White served as the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he oversaw efforts to dismantle legalised segregation. In addition to his activism, White was an acclaimed author of fiction and nonfiction, often exploring themes of the New Negro Movement. Upon his death, the New York Times praised him as 'the nearest approach to a national leader of American Negroes since Booker T. Washington'.