Mary White Ovington (1865 - 1951)

Mary White Ovington was born April 11, 1865, in Brooklyn, New York. She was a daughter of Theodore Tweedy Ovington and Ann Louisa Ketcham.

She was educated at Packer Collegiate Institute and Radcliffe College.

Mary became involved in the campaign for civil rights in 1890 after hearing Frederick Douglass speak in a Brooklyn New York City church and a 1903 speech by Booker T. Washington at the Social Reform Club.

In 1894, Ovington met Ida B. Wells.

1895 she helped found the Greenpoint Settlement in Brooklyn. Appointed head of the project the following year, Ovington remained until 1904 when she was appointed a fellow of the Greenwich House Committee on Social Investigations. Over the next five years, she studied employment and housing problems in black Manhattan. During her investigations, she met W.E.B. Du Bois.

Ovington joined the Socialist Party of America in 1905.

She wrote for journals and newspapers such as The Masses, New York Evening Post, and the New York Call. She also worked with Ray Stannard Baker and influenced the content of his book, Following the Color Line, published in 1908.

The National Negro Committee held its first meeting in New York on May 31 and June 1, 1909. By May, 1910 the National Negro Committee and attendants, at its second conference, organized a permanent body known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Ovington was appointed as its executive secretary. The following year Ovington attended the Universal Races Congress in London. Richetta Randolph Wallace, who had worked with Ovington as a secretary for several years, was hired as the first office staff at NAACP headquarters in 1912.

Ovington remained active in the struggle for women's suffrage. In 1921, she wrote to Alice Paul asking that a black woman be invited to the National Women's Party celebration of the passing of the nineteenth amendment. Ovington was also a pacifist who opposed the United States's involvement in the First World War.

After the war, Ovington served the NAACP as a board member, executive secretary, and chairman. She inspired other women to join the NAACP, and in so doing, made a significant contribution to the multi-cultural composition of the organization.

In June 1934, Mary White Ovington gave speeches to 14 different colleges. Her goal was to show the youth that the NAACP association was made up of blacks and whites, specifically to show black youth that there were whites who hated race oppression.

Ovington wrote several books and articles, including a study of black Manhattan, Half a Man (1911); Status of the Negro in the United States (1913); Socialism and the Feminist Movement (1914); an anthology for black children, The Upward Path (1919); biographical sketches of prominent African Americans, Portraits in Color (1927); an autobiography, Reminiscences (1932); and a history of the NAACP, The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1947).

Ovington retired as a board member of the NAACP in 1947, ending 38 years of service with the organization.

She died on July 15, 1951 in in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts. She was cremated in the chapel of the Unitarian Community Church, New York City.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for Mary White Ovington (11 Apr 1865–15 Jul 1951), Find a Grave Memorial ID 38317858.

• "New York State Census, 1865," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVNJ-B69D : 8 March 2021), Mary W Ovington in household of Theodore T Ovington, Ward 10, Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States; citing Census, p. 34, citing multiple county Clerks; Warren and Lewis County Board of Supervisors; multiple counties in New York; Utica and East Hampton Public Libraries, New York.

"United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8NX-W1V : 29 May 2021), Mary O Ovington in entry for Theodore T Ovington, 1870.

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ8F-61P : 19 February 2021), May W Ovington in household of Theodore T Ovington, Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States; citing enumeration district ED 15, sheet 331A

"United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M53M-GKZ : accessed 13 September 2021), Mary W Ovington in household of James H Merritt, Brooklyn Ward 1, Kings, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 5, sheet 1A, family 2