May Childs Nerney
American civil rights activist / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
May Childs Nerney (also known as Mary;[lower-alpha 1] 1876/1877 ā December 17, 1959) was an American civil rights activist and librarian. She was the secretary of the NAACP from 1912 to 1916, overseeing a large increase in the organization's size. She led protests against the segregation of federal government employees in Washington, D.C., and against the film The Birth of a Nation (1915). Nerney came into conflict with several members of the organization and resigned in 1916. She later worked on cataloging Thomas Edison's papers and published a 1934 biography on him, Thomas A. Edison, A Modern Olympian. She also worked with the League of Women Voters, the board of the Young Women's Christian Association, the Consumers Cooperative Services, and the New York Philharmonic Society.
May Childs Nerney | |
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Executive Secretary of the NAACP | |
In office 1912ā1916 | |
Preceded by | Mary White Ovington |
Succeeded by | Mary White Ovington |
Personal details | |
Born | (1876-10-26)October 26, 1876 Troy, New York, U.S. |
Died | December 17, 1959(1959-12-17) (aged 83) West Orange, New Jersey, U.S. |
Education | Cornell University (BA) Columbia University (BLS) |