[Eoscstudents] Black History

[Levenia Carey]

Hello Everyone:

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.

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.

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.

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.



Quote:

     From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful
    every way I could.
                                                                       
                - Mary McLeod Bethune





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