List of Humanists - W

W

• Alice Walker, American author, poet, and activist. She is best known for the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple. Given the title, "Humanist of the Year" in 1997 by the American Humanist Association.
• James Peter Warbasse, American surgeon and advocate for cooperatives. He founded the Cooperative League of the United States of America (which later became the National Cooperative Business Association) and was its president from 1916 to 1941. Given the title, "Humanist of the Year" in 1955 by the American Humanist Association.
• Ibn Warraq, author of Why I am Not a Muslim, and chair of the Council for Secular Humanism's Committee for the Study of Koranic Literature.
• James D. Watson is a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism.
• Faye Wattleton, the first African-American and youngest President ever elected to Planned Parenthood (1978–1992). Given the title, "Humanist of the Year" in 1986 by the American Humanist Association.
• Steven Weinberg, American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. Given the title, "Humanist of the Year" in 2002 by the American Humanist Association.
• Joss Whedon, television writer and director.
• Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.
• E. O. Wilson is a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism.
• Edwin H. Wilson was a signer of the original Humanist Manifesto. He also co-authored Humanist Manifesto II.
• Sherwin T. Wine, Rabbi and founder of Society for Humanistic Judaism