Flight

New York Ny: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Good. 300 Pp + 4 Pp Ads At Rear. Red Cloth Printed In Orange, Orange-Red And Green. First Printing, With 1926 Date On Title Page. Spine Worn, Tiny Frays At Top Edges, And Lettering Weak; Front Hinge Broken Before Half-Title. Walter Francis White (1893 - 1955) Was A Civil Rights Activist Who Led The National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People (Naacp) For A Quarter Of A Century, 1929-1955, After Joining The Organization As An Investigator In 1918. He Directed A Broad Program Of Legal Challenges To Racial Segregation And Disfranchisement. He Was Also A Journalist, Novelist, And Essayist. He Graduated In 1916 From Atlanta University (Now Clark Atlanta University). In 1918, White Joined The Small National Staff Of The Naacp In New York At The Invitation Of James Weldon Johnson. He Acted As Johnson's Assistant National Secretary And Traveled To The South To Investigate Lynchings And Riots. Of Multiracial, Majority-White Ancestry, At Times He Passed As White To Facilitate His Investigations And Protect Himself In Tense Situations. White Succeeded Johnson As The Head Of The Naacp, Leading The Organization From 1929 To 1955. He Joined The Advisory Council For The Government Of The Virgin Islands In 1934 And Resigned In 1935 To Protest President Roosevelt's Silence At Southern Democrats' Blocking Of Anti-Lynching Legislation To Avoid Retaliatory Obstruction Of His New Deal Policies. White Oversaw The Plans And Organizational Structure Of The Fight Against Public Segregation. He Worked With President Truman On Desegregating The Armed Forces After The Second World War And Gave Him A Draft For The Executive Order To Implement This. Under White's Leadership, The Naacp Set Up Its Legal Defense Fund, Which Conducted Numerous Legal Challenges To Segregation And Disfranchisement, And Achieved Many Successes. Among These Was The Supreme Court Ruling In Brown V. Board Of Education (1954), Which Determined That Segregated Education Was Inherently Unequal. White Also Quintupled Naacp Membership To Nearly 500,000. Not Marked, But From The Library Of Rowena Woodham-Jelliffe (1892- 1992), Who Became A Pioneer In The Field Of Interracial Theater As An Outgrowth Of Her Career As A Social Worker And Co-Founder Of Karamu House. Born And Raised In New Albion, Ill., She Came To Ohio In 1910 To Enter Oberlin College, Where She Served As President Of The Oberlin Women's Suffrage League And Met Her Future Husband, Russell W. Jelliffe. After A Year Spent Jointly As Graduate Students At The University Of Chicago, Rowena And Russell Were Married And Came To Cleveland To Establish The East Side Settlement House That Eventually Became Karamu. To Help Draw Their Largely African American Constituency Into The Settlement's Program, Mrs. Jelliffe Began Producing Children's Plays With Interracial Casting. An Adult Dramatic Group, The Gilpin Players, Was Organized In The Couple's Living Room In 1920. A Permanent Theater Was Opened In 1927, After 2 Summers' Study By Mrs. Jelliffe At The School Of Theater And Dance In New York. Besides Directing 100 Plays At Karamu From 1920-46, She Sometimes Wrote Plays For The Children And Once Completed A Play By Langston Hughes When The Final Act Failed To Arrive In Time. Mrs. Jelliffe Was Also A Campaigner For Civil Rights, Helping To Integrate The Wade Park Manor Dining Room In 1926 And Marching With Martin Luther King, Jr., In The 1960S. Her Papers Are At Case Western University.