Don White: committed activist

The anti-war and social justice movement of Los Angeles lost a great friend and committed activist when Don White, 71, passed away at his home on June 19. Anyone who went to progressive activities here over the last 20 years remembers Don shouting an orientation for security volunteers or making people laugh as he carried out a fundraising pitch.

Don White speaking in support of Haitians.

White’s activism began, more or less, in college with protests against the House Un-American Activities Committee. When he moved to Los Angeles in 1963 to teach history, he became involved in the struggle for equal education and participated in every teachers’ strike.

But it was his experiences in Guatemala during a 1976 trip that compelled him to spend the rest of his life organizing against U.S. imperialism. During the war in El Salvador, he often traveled on fact-finding missions at risk to his own safety; he became an early member of the Los Angeles Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. For years he traveled to protests in Georgia demanding closure of the School of the Americas, known for training Latin American military figures in methods of torture and assassination.

White played a part in the early sanctuary movement and, until his death, took part in protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the separation of immigrant families that they cause.

When the CIA was exposed for selling crack in South Central L.A. to fund the contras in Nicaragua, White worked in a coalition called “Crack the CIA” that mobilized many demonstrations. He helped organize for the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and for D2K protests during the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

More recently, White linked up with Global Women’s Strike and the International Action Center in January 2006 to organize a mass public meeting in solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela that drew hundreds. He was part of a local steering committee when the Troops Out Now Coalition mobilized a week of anti-war activity culminating in a mass march and rally in September 2007.

Don White was active in the Ad Hoc Working Group on Haiti, where he was a constant presence at weekly vigils calling for the safe return of Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. He was also a proud founding member of the Coalition to End Israeli Apartheid–Los Angeles, which strongly advocates for the Palestinian people’s right to return to their homeland.

An invitation for his 70th birthday party was sent out by actor Martin Sheen, but White agreed there would be one only if it could be a fundraiser for continuing the fight. And so it was.

White leaves behind his brother Dennis White and sister-in-law Harriet White, their children and grandchildren, and many activist friends across the U.S. and in El Salvador. Several on-air tributes have been aired on Pacifica radio’s KPFK, and a public memorial will be held Aug. 10 in a church where White made numerous speeches and fundraising pitches for justice and an end to imperialist war.