Walter Francis White

Object Details

Artist

Clara Sipprell, 31 Oct 1885 - 27 Dec 1975

Sitter

Walter Francis White, 1 Jul 1893 - 21 Mar 1955

Exhibition Label

Born Atlanta, Georgia

Walter White headed the NAACP from 1931 to 1955. During these difficult years, he directed an unsuccessful struggle for an anti-lynching bill and implemented a long-range campaign of legal actions culminating in the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing discrimination in the nation's schools. White's tenure at the NAACP saw it through the Depression, when membership and donations declined precipitously and it faced a strong challenge from the Communist Party-USA, which actively competed for African American members. After World War II and during the beginning of the Cold War, White remained a staunch anti-Communist and stressed the need for racial justice in America to compete with the Soviets in winning third-world allies. Due in part to White's urging, Harry Truman ran on a civil rights platform in the 1948 presidential election.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; bequest of Phyllis Fenner

c. 1950

Object number

NPG.82.197

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Photograph

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image/Sheet: 25.3 × 20.3 cm (9 15/16 × 8")

Mat: 55.9 × 40.7 cm (22 × 16")

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Interior

Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Mustache

Costume\Dress Accessory\Handkerchief

Autograph

Costume\Dress Accessory\Tie\Necktie

Walter Francis White: Male

Walter Francis White: Politics and Government\Public Official

Walter Francis White: Literature\Writer\Novelist

Walter Francis White: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist\Civil rights leader

Walter Francis White: Literature\Writer\Historical

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.82.197

Usage of Metadata (Object Detail Text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm462a5ed0f-e2f3-44c9-94ae-bf9ce6685f5e