Edith R. White was born in New Jersey in November 4, 1923. Upon graduating from Vassar College, she became a member of the U.S. Navy’s WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. For her first operation with WAVES, she trained in cryptography, specifically breaking Japanese codes, and worked in Washington DC. Her second appointment was at Sampson Hospital, a tuberculosis hospital in New York, where she met her husband, Forrest. Shortly after their marriage, they moved first to California for some time, bringing their first child into the world, then to Richmond where Edith gave birth to another child, thenceforth moving to, and settling in Norfolk until this day. Norfolk had a vastly different political setting than Edith’s previous residences. There were on-going issues not only involving racial segregation, but also women’s rights. Edith previously had black officers in the Navy and black friends in college, and she believed that this was no way for anyone to live, let alone her children. Being the natural born fighter for civil rights that she was, Edith decided to get involved with as many activist groups that she could. Such groups were the League of Women Voters, Women’s Interracial Council, American Association of University Women, and the Norfolk Committee for Public Schools, the latter of which Forrest White would become president.

Note written by James Detterman