Ovington, Mary White

OVINGTON, MARY WHITE (1885–1951). Known primarily for her part in forming the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, Mary White Ovington was a lifelong socialist and strong advocate of women’s rights. Born in Brooklyn to well-to-do abolitionist and Unitarian parents, she attended Harvard Annex (later Radcliffe College) for two years. From 1896 to 1903 she expanded her education as head worker at the Greenpoint Settlement in Brooklyn, which she helped found. In 1904 she joined the staff of Greenwich House Settlement and worked mainly with black children. She also began research on the conditions of African Americans in Manhattan, a project that resulted in a major publication, Half a Man: The Status of the Negro in New York (1911).

Inspired by the British socialist William Morris, Ovington joined the Socialist Party in 1905. She wrote for several Left journals, such as The Masses and the New Review, and frequently for the party press on matters of racial injustice. While an ardent suffragist and pacifist who opposed U.S. entry into World War I, Ovington worked mainly to improve racial relations in the United States. She joined several uplift organizations, including the National League for the Protection of Colored Women. She helped found the NAACP and is credited with recruit W.E.B. Du Bois to the organization. Beginning in 1914 she became chair of the NAACP. She held that position for nearly two decades and weathered many political storms, including factional battles of integration, economic radicalism, and Pan-Africanism. She also wrote antiracist stories for children and a novel, The Shadow (1920).

A prolific writer as well as tireless lecturer, Ovington wrote her autobiography, The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1947), which focused on her activities within the NAACP. She resigned her position as board member that same year. She lived the remainder of her life in Massachusetts.

Kellogg, Charles Flint. NAACP: A History of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1909–1920. Vol. 1. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967.Mary White Ovington Papers. Walter P. Reuther Library. Wayne State University. http://reuther.wayne.edu/node/3521

Ovington, Mary White. Black and White Sat Down Together: Reminiscences of a Founder of the NAACP. New York, N.Y: The Feminist Press, 1995.

Wedin, Carolyn. Mary White Ovington and the Founding of the NAACP. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.