Mary White Ovington biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Social reformer Mary White Ovington was born on April 11, 1865, in Brooklyn, New York, where she also grew up. Ovington was one of four children raised in a socially and politically progressive household. Many members of her family had been active in the abolitionist and women's rights movements. She and her family attended services at a local Unitarian Church, led by minister John White Chadwick. Chadwick's radical ideals had a strong influence on Ovington.

Ovington first attended the Packer Collegiate Institute and then continued her studies at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She had leave school in 1893 before completing her degree because the family ran into some financial difficulty. Back in Brooklyn, Ovington soon began her life of social work.

Social and Political Activist

In the mid-1890s, Ovington helped the poor at what became known as the Greenpoint Settlement. She drew inspiration from Jane Addams of Chicago's Hull House, another settlement that provided shelter and services to those in need. In addition to her social work at Greenpoint, Ovington soon took on another challenge. She began studying the lives of African Americans living in New York at the time. Her research would result in the 1911 book Half a Man: The Status of the Negro in New York. Ovington has been quoted as saying, "If we deny full expression to a race, if we restrict its education, stifle its intellectual and aesthetic impulses, we make it impossible to fairly gauge its ability."

While at Greenpoint, Ovington was also active in the Social Reform Club. It was at a club event that she had a chance to listen Booker T. Washington give a speech. Around 1904, Ovington left Greenpoint. She came down with typhoid and subsequently spent a year recuperating from her illness. During this time, Ovington began exchanging letters with famed African American intellectual and activist W.E.B. Du Bois. She became more politically engaged, joining the Socialist Party in 1905.

Co-Founder of NAACP

In addition to her social work, Ovington also had a career as a journalist. She wrote for a number of publications, including the New York Evening Post. Her life, however, was profoundly changed by an article written by another in 1908. William English Walling penned a piece about a racial attack in Springfield, Illinois, on the town's African American residents. This riot left seven people dead and destroyed dozens of homes and businesses. In his article, Walling asked for people to unite in support of African Americans.

Ovington contacted Walling, and she and Dr. Henry Moskowitz met with Walling at his New York home.