Roland White was editor of the Dubuque Leader, an Iowa labor newspaper, from 1939 until 1961, with the exception of the war years of 1942 to 1945, when he served in the United States Army. In 1961, White left the Dubuque Leader to become editor of the Peoria Labor News (Illinois). Later he was editor of the Daily Pantagraph of Bloomington, Illinois.
Roland White, the son of Coral W. and Grace E. White, was born in Sparks, Nevada in 1908. He attended the University of Iowa, and received an M.A. in history in 1933. While attending the University, he served as the editor of The Daily Iowan, the student newspaper.
In the 1930s, Roland White was very active in the affairs of the Iowa Socialist Party. In 1936, he was a member of the State Executive Committee and was also serving as temporary state secretary for the party. From 1933 to 1935, he corresponded frequently with Clarence Senior, the executive secretary of the national Socialist Party. This correspondence is located in the general correspondence files in box 10.
In 1937, White joined the staff of the Iowa Co-operative Publishing Company, of Dubuque, which had just purchased the Iowa Leader with plans to turn it into a co-operative labor paper. Archie Carter was the first editor of the Dubuque Leader, but in 1938, at the time of his imprisonment on a charge of sodomy, he was succeeded by White.
