Director Michelle Smawley’s illuminating documentary film, Forgotten Hero: 
Walter White and the NAACP goes a long way 
towards resurrecting one of the more significant figures of the early civil rights era, NAACP leader Walter White. While many consider the birth of the civil rights movement to b 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus, the stage had been set decades before by activists of the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People. Some of the NAACP leaders are familiar, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Thurgood Marshall, but Walter White, head of the NAACP from 1929 to 1955, has been all but forgotten. With his blond hair and blue eyes, Walter White looked white; he described himself as “an enigma, a Black man occupying a white body.” Like virtually all light-skinned African Americans of his day, 
White was descended from enslaved Black women and powerful white men. But he was Black — by law, identity, and conviction and spent his entire life 
fighting for Black civil rights. Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP traces, successes of this neglected civil rights hero and seeks to explain his disappearance from our history. Director Michelle Smawley joins us to talk about lesser known but highly influential leader who’s life work galvanized a generation of powerful writers, journalist, jurist, organizers and clergy who challenged America’s political and institutional bigotry.
For more go to: pbs.org/americanexperience/forgotten-hero-walter-white-and-naacp
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP
Premieres Tuesday, February 25, 2025
on PBS and Streaming on PBS.org
About the filmmaker – Veteran director Michelle Smawley most recently ran a year-long series for a statewide initiative for WNET. She was responsible for launching long form and documentary series programming. She was the founding Executive Producer for TRAX, the first podcast network for preteens. The network launched on PRX and was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. TRAX earned nominations from The Webbys, The Ambies and the 2021 Peabody Awards. Smawley is an award-winning director, series developer and educator. She has worked with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, Sundance, HBO, NowThis, SONY Pictures, National Geographic and many others. Smawley is an adjunct professor at NYU. She has also served on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism and the Graduate Program in Social Documentary at the School of Visual Arts. She attended the graduate journalism program at the University of Missouri and earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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