Mary McLeod Bethune, Daughter of Former Slaves,
Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune, one of America’s greatest Black educators, was told by a white Presbyterian school that she could not go to Africa to teach because it was the policy of their school not to permit African Americans to serve in Africa. Mary Bethune had attended the Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, later known as the Moody Bible Institute. This was an interdenominational school in Chicago. Her goal was to teach and help African people. When Mary applied for a position in Africa, she was greatly disappointed in being rejected. Serving in foreign missions was her goal. This was one of the great disappointments of her life. It was then that she made the decision to teach Black students in America. For the next five years she taught in Georgia and South Carolina.
Mary McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina. Her parents, Samuel and Patsy McLeod, were former slaves. Her father was of African and Indian descent. Her mother was African. Mary was the fifteenth of seventeen children. She was born in a small log cabin. Most of her family were freed after the Civil War. As a child, she helped her mother deliver white people’s wash. At the time of her birth, her parents managed to purchase a small farm near Mayesville. Once on a trip to a white home with her mother, Mary picked up a book from a white child. The child snatched the book from Mary and told her she was black and could not read. That scene stayed with Mary for many years. At that moment she was determined to learn how to read.
Blacks did not have many opportunities to attend school. Mary was able to attend the Trinity Missionary School, which was about five miles from her home. The school opened in 1885. Mary’s journey toward getting an education took her from Trinity to find new opportunities to teach. She got a job at the Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia in 1896. Mary married Albertus Bethune and had one son. She was disappointed in many of the teaching jobs because she was not able to teach in the way she wanted. There was only one thing left for her to do and that was to create her own school.
In 1900, she moved to Palatka, Florida, where she established two schools. After four years, she moved to Day tona, Florida and founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Black girls in 1904. She had five students in a rented house. She didn’t have any money, only a faith that she could succeed. Mary made benches from discarded crates. Her school near a city dump. She raised money by baking and selling sweet potato pies, ice cream, and fried fish to the workers at the dump.
The students didn’t have any pencils or pens, so she made them out of burned wood and ink from elderberry juice. As the school grew, she asked businesses nearby for donations of furniture. In one year. the school grew from five students to 30. Mary went on to enroll over 500 students. The school later merged with the Cook man Institute for men and became the Bethune-Cookman College in 1923. But Mary was not finished with her work to improve the conditions of Blacks.
Blacks in and around Daytona lived in poverty. There was no hospital to treat them. Mary did what she always did, she established a hospital to help the sick in 1911. It also served as a place to train nurses. When the Spanish Flu struck, her students helped the sick. Mary Bethune’s work was not without backlash. As her success grew, the Klu Klux Klan marched on the school and threatened to burn it down. But Mary was not deterred. She faced the Klan with armed supporters behind her. The Klan backed down. Mary felt that there was more work to do to help Blacks. She relocated to Washington, D.C. and her life changed again.
The work of Mary Bethune reached the president of the United States. She had a reputation as a great leader. Mary served five U.S. presidents as an advisor on issues that impacted Blacks. Included in this list was Cal vin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Harry Truman. The most significant role that she had was as the advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She became the Director of the Negro Affairs, the highest paid Black in government at the time. She established the informal “Black Cabinet.” She had unlimited access to the White House.
This group of Blacks worked on lynching legislation, voting rights, and the New Deal of President Roosevelt to create jobs for unemployed Blacks. Mary became very close to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The work of the cabinet laid the foundation for the modern civil rights movement. Mary Bethune remained close to President Roosevelt until his death. She was often seen walking with a cane. Mary later revealed that she used the cane because it had belonged to her friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The life of Mary McLeod Bethune would fill several books. She was truly an extraordinary woman. Her awards and honors numbered in the hundreds. She received 11 Honorary degrees from both black and white colleges. Her honors continued after her death. She was the first woman to have a national monument dedicated to her in the nation’s capital. Schools, parks, and streets have been named in her honor. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1935, Mary Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women. Today people can visit the Council Headquarters in Washington. Mary McLeod Bethune died on May 8, 1955, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her words still have meaning today when she stated the following, “We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.”
Today, there was a statue in Lincoln Park to commemorate this great educator. The National Council of Negro Women, which she founded, raised the fund for this monument. This was the first monument to honor a Black woman in a public park in Washing ton, D.C. Now, let’s make sure that our youth know her story! Hopefully it is still there!!