Walter White (1893-1955)

Image Courtesy of the New Georgia Encyclopedia

  • Executive secretary of the NAACP from 1931-1955
  • Advocate of Indian Independence
  • Member of U.S. delegation to UN Conference in San Francisco, 1945

Online Reference Source:

Walter White, American National Biography

Biographies

Janken, Kenneth Robert. White: The Biography of Walter White, Mr. NAACP. New York: The New Press, 2003.

  • “Before World War II the NAACP had exhibited only limited interest in the international dimensions of race.” (278)

Primary Sources

  • Papers located in the James Welldon Johnson Collection at Yale University
  • A Rising Wind. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Dorian and Company, Inc., 1945

White’s account of his information-gathering trip on the conditions of African-American soldiers in England, North Africa, the Middle East and Italy from January to March 1944.

  • At a London dinner party, White notes that none of the dinner guests made a connection between, “the American attitude toward Negroes whose skins were black or brown and the British attitude towards Indians whose skins were brown” (31).
  • “World War II has given to the Negro a sense of kinship with other colored–and also oppressed–peoples of the world” (144)
  • “If already planned race riots and lynchings of returning Negro soldiers “to teach them their place” are consummated, if Negro war workers are first fired, if India remains enslaved… World War III will be in the making before the last gun is fired in World War II” (154).
  • “Can the United States, Britain, and other ‘white’ nations any longer afford, in enlightened self-interest, racial superiority?” (154)
  • “The United States, Great Britain, France, and other Allied nations must choose without delay one of two courses–to revolutionize their racial concepts and practices, to abolish imperialism and grant full equality to all of its people, or else prepare for World War III” (154)
  • A Man Called White, The Autobiography of Walter White. New York: Viking Press, 1948.
  • Papers of the NAACP, Library of Congress

Sirdar Jagjit “J.J.” Singh (1897-1976)

Courtesy of the New York Times

  • owner of “India Arts and Crafts,” import shop at 14 East 56th Street, New York
  • U.S. resident since 1926
  • president of Indian League of America, 1941(membership totaled 26 (Venkataramani, 9))-1959;

Biographies

Shaplen, Robert. “Profiles: One-Man Lobby,” New Yorker Magazine, March 24, 1950, 35-55.

Primary Sources

Papers located in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Library, New Delhi

Mazumdar, Haridas. America’s Contributions to India’s Freedom. New York: Dell, 1960.

30 articles or letters to the editors of major national American newspapers

  • Ex. J.J. Singh, “India Remains Wary,” New York Times, May 7, 1944.

Reflections of Malti Singh (part 1, part 2)

Singh, Malti.  “J.J. Singh: India’s Man in the United States; An Indian American’s campaign to `influence the influencers’.” India Abroad,  August 1, 1997; “J.J. Singh: India’s Man in the United States; Campaign focuses on famine relief as freedom dawns.” India Abroad,  August 8, 1997.

  • Malti Saksena, daughter of High Commissioner for India to Canada and former ConsulGeneral in New York, married Singh in October 1951. (“Troth announced of Malti Saksena, NYT, September 20, 1951)