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Hello Everyone:<br>
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Today we would like to introduce Mrs. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune
(1875-1955). Mary was an educator and civil rights leader. Born in
Mayesville, South Carolina, the 15th of 17 children, Mary McLeod spent
much of her childhood picking cotton and taking in washing and
ironing. Determined to get an education, she walked five miles to and
from school each day for six years. Later she attended Scotia Seminary
in North Carolina and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. After
graduating from Moody in 1895, she became a teacher and two years later
married Albertus Bethune. She and her husband had one son, Albert.<br>
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In 1904, the Bethunes moved to Florida, and Mrs. Bethune set up her own
school, The Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Negro Girls.
Tuition was fifty cents a week and the student body consisted of just
five girls. Within two years, there were 250 students, and the school,
which would later become Bethune-Cookman College, was firmly
established.<br>
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In 1911, when a student almost died from being refused help at a local
whites-only hospital, Mrs. Bethune established a hospital for African
Americans. Her success brought her national attention, and in 1920,
she became a vice president of the National Urban League. President of
the National Association of Colored Women. She founded the National
Council of Negro Women in 1935, and was Director of the Division of
Minority Affairs in the National Youth Administration, a New Deal
agency created under Franklin Roosevelt. Served as consultant to the
U.S. Secretary of War for selection of the
first female officer candidates. Appointed consultant on interracial
affairs and understanding at the charter conference of the U.N. Was
awarded the Haitian Medal of Honor and Merit, that country's highest
award. In Liberia she received the honor of Commander of the Order of
the Star of Africa. <br>
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Mrs. Bethune was a personal friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, and an adviser
to five presidents: Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin
Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. She insisted upon
being addressed respectfully as Mrs. Bethune, and while at John Hopkins
Medical Center ordered that two African-American physicians be allowed
to monitor her treatment. Throughout her life, Mrs. Bethune emphasized
education, self-respect, and pride in being African-American.<br>
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Quote:<br>
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<p>From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful
every way I could. <br>
- Mary McLeod Bethune</p>
</blockquote>
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