Douglas Hughes White was born and raised in North Carolina. Coming of age during the turbulent 1950s and 1960s, he was in the last generation of Black people who lived under de jure segregation and Jim Crow.
During those years he lived through the Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four little Black girls in Birmingham, and the lynching of the young teen-age Emmitt Till in Mississippi.
In the early 1960s Douglas attended North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University) a historically Black college. He and his siblings were very involved in the Civil Rights Movement and Civil Rights demonstrations where he was beaten and jailed. These life-changing experiences for Douglas motivated him to dedicate his life to social justice and the advancement of Black people, minorities and poor people in America.
After college, Douglas worked as a welfare worker and community organizer in New York City. In 1968, he enrolled at the Yale University Law School to further his commitment to impact civil, human rights and equity in America. While at Yale, Douglas was one of the founding members of the Black Law Students Union, now expanded to a national organization, the National Black Law Students Association. Since graduating from law school, Douglas has worked in state, local and federal government positions with a professional focus on labor, civil/human rights, environmental, personnel and equity issues.
From February 2002 until January 2018 Douglas served as Deputy Commissioner for Administration for the Fire Department for New York City. He oversaw Labor Relations, Human Resources, Recruitment and Employment Initiatives and was Acting Chair of the New York Fire Department Pension Fund, with a total investment of seven billion dollars.
Douglas White has served as Commissioner of Human Rights for the State of New York, (Appointed by New York State Governor Mario Cuomo), the New York City Personnel Director/Commissioner, (Appointed by New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins), Director of Labor Services (Appointed by New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch), and Senior Policy Advisor of the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, (Appointed by the administration of President William J. Clinton).
Throughout Douglas White’s fifty years as a lawyer and public servant he continues to be a highly regarded public speaker and has been invited to speak in numerous settings regarding human and civil rights, equity and justice.
Douglas White lives in New York City with his wife, Jane Lazarre, a writer and a poet, formerly a professor of creative writing and literature at The New School University. His older son, Adam Lazarre-White, is an actor, producer, voiceover artist and screen writer living in Los Angeles, with his wife and daughter; his younger son, Khary Lazarre-White, lives in Harlem, and is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the award-winning organization The Brotherhood Sister Sol (BroSis), an organization that serves Black and Latinx youth that works at the intersection of educating, organizing and training for justice. Douglas White has served on the Board of Directors of BroSis since its founding.
Douglas Hughes White
Civil Rights Activist – Lawyer – Public Servant – Government Official – Writer – Speaker
By Author, Douglas H. White
Unbroken: The Last Generation of Black Americans Under Jim Crow and the Culture of Racism in America
The memoir is represented by Marie Brown
Douglas White has recently completed his memoir entitled: Unbroken: The Last Generation of Black Americans Under Jim Crow and the Culture of Racism in America.
“The brilliance of Douglas White’s memoir Unbroken is that as he inhabits history, so does his reader. We are in the South, in the 1950s, yet we revel in the protective enclosure of family and community, the details of a little boy making his early morning journeys to neighbors for donuts and sweetened coffee, standing behind a plow with Mr. Fuller, asking his curious questions, and witness the respect for the outstanding achievements of Black athletes, artists, activists and heroes of their time. While all along there is pervasive segregation the author shows is more suffocating than the August heat that sends water running down his backside . Then I see the six year old boy, in his brown shorts and bare feet, and like him in the school yard, I’m accused of theft, and I grasp the searing fact of pervasive everyday racism. As a lifelong educator, I long to read aloud passage after passage knowing how it will deeply engage young people in the complexities and tensions of the story, so that they too begin to inhabit history.”
Ruth Charney, Co-Creator, Responsive Classroom, Co-Founder Northeast Foundation for Children and Greenfield Center School, author: Teaching Children to Care; Habits of Goodness.
. . . . . .
“Douglas White’s Unbroken is an extraordinary memoir, immersing the reader in the complexity, beauty, and pain of the Black experience in the United States. I know of no book that tells the story of Jim Crow’s last generation so fully and eloquently and in such a raw, personal way. As a member of the generation of Black Americans following Douglas White’s, I view this memoir as a gift to us, as well as to the generations to come.”
N. Jeremi Duru, Professor of Law and Director of the Sport & Society Initiative at American University; Author of “Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching opportunity in the NFL”
. . . . . .
“Doug White’s Unbroken is a powerful story, one that frequently caught me up short viscerally. Here is a tale that reveals the hatred and indifference to the suffering of others. Here, told with a quiet force, are the nightmares that have embodied themselves into our history, and the way one puts on a face of stoicism or wit or humor or outrage. How he captures the cancer of racism and what it does to us all.”
Paul Mariani, poet and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of English at Boston College.
Richard Meadows
Maternal great great grandfather
Sylvia Cobb White
Paternal grandmother
Fred White
Paternal grandfather
Isaac Meadows & Sally Robinson Meadows
Maternal grandparents
Alphonso Meadows, Sr.
Uncle
Simeon Meadows, Alphonso Meadows Sr., Lionel Meadows, Marie Meadows Stephenson
Uncles and Aunt
& Lois Amelia Meadows White
Mother
Frederick White, Sr. and Lois Amelia Meadows White
Parents
Frederick White, Sr.
Father
Douglas H. White
High school graduation
Selected
Major Human Rights Achievements
As NYS Human Rights Commissioner
Douglas White established the first statewide Crisis Prevention Unit to facilitate resolution of intergroup conflicts on the community level. The first executive of an enforcement agency to designate AIDS as a disability under the Human Rights Law and to create an Office of AIDS discrimination issues.
As New York City Personnel Director
Douglas H. White determined the great majority of Blacks, Latinx and women were segregated in the lower paying positions of city government and established NYC’s first Affirmative Employment Plan which provided the foundation and strategy necessary to move to a system that increased fair and equal opportunity for all citizens.
As Deputy Fire Commissioner of The New York City Fire Department
After Commissioner White’s appointment in February 2002, he was charged with increasing minority representation of firefighters. He put in place a comprehensive recruitment effort that cost millions of dollars to change the department which historically had very few minorities and women as firefighters.
This foundational effort and future initiatives over a 16 year-period were critical to the diversity changes to come. When Commissioner White was appointed minority representation among firefighters was 10%. Currently, 28% of firefighters in the department are minorities.
The latest graduating class from the academy in 2023 was 47% people of color: 28% Hispanic, 15% Black, and 4% Asian.
Speaking Engagements & Contact
Douglas H. White is available to speak on any issues related to his vast experience regarding civil /human rights, diversity, equity and his memoir on segregation and Jim Crow.