Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod Bethune, an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.r, was born on July 10, 1875 in Maysville, South Carolina.

 "If our people are to fight their way up out of bondage we must arm them with the sword and the shield and buckler of pride - belief in themselves and their possibilities, based upon a sure knowledge of the achievements of the past." and a year later, "Not only the Negro child but children of all races should read and know of the achievements, accomplishments and deeds of the Negro. World peace and brotherhood are based on a common understanding of the contributions and cultures of all races and creeds.".


One of 17 children of Samuel and Patsy McLeod, former slaves, Bethune worked in the cotton fields with her family.


After demonstrating a desire to read and write, McLeod attended Mayesville's one-room schoolhouse, Trinity Mission School that was run by the Presbyterian Board of Missions of Freedmen. Her teacher, Emma Jane Wilson, became a significant mentor in her life. Wilson had attended Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College), so arranged for McLeod to attend the same school on a scholarship, which she did from 1888-1894.

She then attended Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago (now the Moody Bible Institute), hoping to become a missionary in Africa. However, she was told that she would not be able to go because black missionaries were not needed, so she instead planned to teach.

Bethune's first position as a teacher was for a brief time at her former elementary school in Sumter County. In 1896, she began teaching at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta, Georgia which was part of a Presbyterian mission.

It was founded and run by Lucy Craft Laney who impressed upon Bethune the foundations for her pedagogy. Laney was a former slave and ran her school with a Christian missionary zeal, emphasizing character and practical education for girls, but also accepted the boys who showed up on the steps of her school eager to learn. Laney's mission was to better the perception that black people must fight their image of living with "shame and crime" through Christian moral education.

Bethune was influenced deeply by Laney and adopted many of her educational philosophies seeking to improve the conditions of black people by educating primarily women: "I believe that the greatest hope for the development of my race lies in training our women thoroughly and practically." .


She married Albertus Bethune in 1898 and they subsequently lived in Savannah, Georgia for a year while she did some social work. She was persuaded by a visiting Presbyterian minister named Coyden Harold Uggams (grandfather of entertainer Leslie Uggams) to relocate to Palatka, Florida to run a mission school. She did so in 1899 and began an outreach to prisoners and ran the mission school.

She started a school for black girls in Daytona Beach. From six students it grew and merged with an institute for black boys and eventually became the Bethune-Cookman School. Its quality far surpassed the standards of education for black students, and rivaled those of white schools.  

She dedicated her life to the education of both whites and blacks about the accomplishments and needs of black people, writing in 1938,

She worked for the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and became a member of Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet," sharing the concerns of black people with the Roosevelt administration while spreading Roosevelt's message to blacks, who had traditionally been Republican voters. She was a leader in the Black women's club movement and served as president of the National Association of Colored Women.

Bethune was a delegate and adviser to national conferences on education, child welfare, and home ownership. She also was Director of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration from 1936 to 1944 and served as consultant to the U.S. Secretary of War for selection of the first black female officer candidates. After World War II, Bethune was appointed consultant on interracial affairs and understanding at the charter conference of the U.N. Founder of the National Council of Negro Women

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander..

In 1930, journalist Ida Tarbell included Bethune as number 10 on her list of America's greatest women. Bethune was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1939 by the NAACP. Bethune was the only Black woman present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1948, representing the NAACP with W.E.B. DuBois and Walter White.

Mary McLeod Bethune died on May 18, 1955, but her legacy and life were observed in many ways. In 1973, Mary McLeod Bethune was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

 In 1974, a sculpture was erected in her honor in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C.
 On that sculpture are engraved these words:

"I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you, finally, a responsibility to our young people."