Mary
White Ovington came from a family of liberal thinkers. Her parents
were Unitarians who had been actively involved in the abolition
of slavery movement and were strong supporters of the suffrage
movement, working to gain the right to vote for women. During
her life, Mary White Ovington was actively involved in the suffrage
movement and was an ardent pacifist advocating against US involvement
in World War 1, but she is best known as an advocate for the rights
of African-Americans. In 1890, Mary White Ovington heard Frederick
Douglass speak; he was one of her greatest heroes and she resolved
to get involved in civil rights work for African-Americans. In
1895 she helped start and then headed the Greenpoint Settlement
in Brooklyn in 1895, where middle class volunteers live in a poor
neighborhood to help the community. She became increasingly involved
in advocating against injustices in education, employment and
housing for African-Americans, and wrote about these issues for
a number of radical newspapers and journals. The more injustice
she saw, the more she resolved to "give what strength and ability
I had to the problem of securing for the Negro American those
rights and privileges into which every white American was born."
In 1909 she helped found the National Association for the Advancement
of Coloured People (NAACP) to advance the cause of civil rights
all across the nation. For the next four decades she remained
active with the NAACP serving as board member, executive secretary
and chair. During that time the NAACP won many local and national
victories against racial discrimination and segregation.
