- Mary White Ovington The NAACP was criticized by some members of the African American community. Members of the organization were physically attacked by white racists. John R. Shillady, executive secretary of the NAACP, was badly beaten up when he visited Austin, Texas in 1919. 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. Mary White Ovington I.S.30 Middle School in Brooklyn was named in her honor. She is one of the persons named on The Extra Mile—Points of Light Volunteer Pathway National Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 2009 she was depicted on a United States postage stamp with Mary Church Terrell. Final years Mary White Ovington was forced to resign from the NAACP due to poor health. In her eighties, Ovington spent her final years with her sister in Massachusetts and in 1951 died in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, at the age of 86. Ovington also wrote novels and children's books, including Hazel, which told the story of a young Boston Black girl spending a winter in Alabama at the turn of the century. References Mary White Ovington Biography, Women's Rights Activist, Civil Rights Activist, Activist, Journalist, Children's Activist (1865–1951), Biography.com External links 1865 births 1951 deaths Activists from New York (state) American pacifists American suffragists American women's rights activists NAACP activists People from Brooklyn Progressive Era in the United States Radcliffe College alumni Women civil rights activists