Packer Collegiate Institute and went on to pursue
studies in economics at RADCLIFFECOLLEGE. She
attended the school from 1891 through 1893, but
a downturn in the family finances prevented her
from continuing her studies and graduating. In
1893 she became a social worker and by the early
1900s based herself at the Greenwich House Set-
tlement in Manhattan, an organization whose
clientele was predominantly people of color.
Ovington’s political awareness and commit-
ment to racial equality and African-American
civil rights intensified as she came into contact
with such influential thinkers and activists as W.
E. B. DUBOIS. In 1909, Ovington, who joined the
Socialist movement, worked alongside DuBois and
other visionary activists to develop plans for the
formation of the NAACP. She enjoyed a 40-year
affiliation with the organization during which she
served as vice president, chair of the board, and
treasurer. It was Ovington who lobbied for the or-
ganization to dedicate itself to achieving equal
funding for white and African-American schools.
Her intervention in this regard is viewed as an im-
portant contribution to the protests and legal
challenges to segregated education, including the
1954 Brown v. Board of Educationcase in which
the NAACP played a vital leadership role. The
NAACP celebrated Ovington’s tireless contribu-
tions to the advancement of people of color and
recognized her as “the Mother of the New Eman-
cipation.”
During the Harlem Renaissance, Ovington
was actively involved in the publishing and liter-
ary world of the time. In addition to working on
the editorial staff at THECRISIS,she published a
variety of works, including articles, book reviews,
children’s books, and historical biographical
sketches. Her history, Portraits of Color,which in-
cluded profiles of leading African Americans of
the past and present, was published in 1927. Dur-
ing 1932 and 1933 she contributed articles to the
Baltimore Afro-Americanabout the NAACP. Those
pieces were republished as Black and White Sat
Down Together: The Reminiscences of an NAACP
Founderin 1995. Ovington also contributed arti-
cles to several newspapers and scholarly journals,
including The New York Evening Post, JOURNAL OF
NEGROHISTORY,and Survey.Her history of the
NAACP, The Walls Come Tumbling Down, was
published in 1947, the year that she retired from
the organization.
Ovington, who moved to Massachusetts after
her retirement, died in her sister’s Newton High-
land’s home in July 1951.Bibliography
Ovington, Mary White. Black and White Sat Down To-
gether: The Reminiscences of an NAACP Founder.
Ralph Luker, ed. New York: Feminist Press at the
City University of New York, 1995.
Wedin, Carolyn. Inheritors of the Spirit: Mary White Ov-
ington and the Founding of the NAACP.New York:
Wiley, 1998.Owen, Chandler(1889–1967)
An activist, journalist, and cofounder of THEMES-
SENGERmagazine, Owen Chandler was born in
Warrenton, North Carolina. He went on to attend
Virginia Union University, from which he gradu-
ated in 1913. He then pursued studies in political
science and sociology as a student at the New York
School of Philanthropy, a branch of COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY. His studies were financed by one of
the first social work fellowships that the NA-
TIONALURBANLEAGUEawarded. While a student
in NEWYORKCITY, Owen met A. PHILIPRAN-
DOLPH, the activist with whom he would share a
rich, lifelong friendship.
Owen and Randolph founded The Messenger
in New York City in 1917. The two men, who both
were members of the Socialist Party, were known
throughout Harlem as “Lenin” and “Trotsky.” Un-
like the two other leading monthly periodicals,
THECRISISand OPPORTUNITY, The Messengerwas
not affiliated with a civil rights organization. The
magazine had a specifically political focus and reg-
ularly called attention to the overwhelming injus-
tices visited upon African Americans. During
World War I, Owen and Randolph were charged
with treason after they encouraged Americans to
become politically active and lobby their elected
officials to work toward peace. The case against
them was dismissed, however. Owen published a
number of political pamphlets and books during
and after the Harlem Renaissance. He collaborated
with Randolph in 1917 to publish Terms of Peace
and The Darker Racesand the antilynching study408 Owen, Chandler