
Mary McLeod Bethune
education advocate | university founder
Mary McLeod Bethune ~ dubbed the "First Lady of Struggle" ~ was an all-out champion of the rights of African-American women...lovingly referred to as her "daughters." The child of former-slaves-turned-working-poor, she was the only 1 amongst her 17 siblings to attend school.
Driven by the conviction that education was essential to racial equality, Mary spent 10 years as a teacher before going on to establish a college, found a civil rights organization and advise 4 US presidents. A "thirst for education" + "philosophy of living and serving" were the she legacies endowed to future generations in her Last Will and Testament, gifts that continue to guide us.
education advocacy | creating opportunities for African American children
civil rights leadership | empowering women + minorities in economic, educational, social and political arenas
1904 | founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls
1924 | beat out fellow civil rights activist Ida B. Wells to be elected president of the National Association of Colored Women
1935 | appointed as a special adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on minority affairs and organized the National Council of Negro Women to promote women's and civil rights
from | to
cotton picker, small-town school teacher | a nationally recognized educator, prominent civil rights activist + feminist, college founder + president, adviser to several president, inductee into the National Women's Hall of Fame
born on
July 10, 1875
born in
Mayesville, South Carolina
birth name
Mary Jane McLeod
citizen of
The United States of America
educated at
Scotia Seminary for Girls
~ Concord, North Carolina | 1888 - 1893 ~
Dwight Moody's Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions
~ Chicago, Illinois | 1894 ~
married to | separated from
Albertus Bethune
~ together 1898 - 1907 ~
daughter of
Patsy McIntosh + Samuel McLeod
~ former slaves who were married prior to emancipation ~
mother of
Albert Bethune
influenced by | worked alongside
Lucy Craft Laney
Ida B. Wells
W.E.B. DuBois
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. + Eleanor Roosevelt
Harry Truman
died on
May 18, 1955
~ Daytona, Florida ~
image credit
Betsy Graves Reyneau | National Archives | public domain
collapse bio bits"Cease to be a drudge. Seek to be an artist."
spoken on platforms + posted in her Domestic Science classrooms | circa 1925
"Enter to Learn; Depart to Serve."
inscription above the entryway of the Main Hall of the Bethune-Cookman Institute | circa 1925
"There is a place in God's sun for the youth 'farthest down' who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it."
"A Century of Progress of Negro Women" | june 1935
"We have fought for America with all her imperfections, not so much for what she is, but for what we know she can be."
What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?" | november 1939
"Sunday afternoon I would take the farm children for miles around – I would give them whatever I had learned during the week...Poetry, reading, songs, etc…I would give to them as often as I got. As I got I gave. They gave me a broader capacity for taking in and I feel that up to today, I feel it in all things."
Interview with Mary McLeod Bethune, ca. 1940 | circa 1940
"I refused to be discouraged, for neither God nor man can use a discouraged person."
Faith that Moved a Dump Heap | june 1941
"I considered cash money as the smallest of my resources. I had faith in a loving God, faith in myself, and a desire to serve. Although I saw my work would have to be done on a day-to-day basis, I built a fence of trust around each day."
Faith that Moved a Dump Heap | june 1941
"I think I have spent my life well. I pray now that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of Peace, Progress, Brotherhood, and Love."
Dr. Bethune's Last Will &Testament | 1952
"Any idea that keeps anybody out is too small."
Address to a World Assembly for Moral Re-Armament | july 1954
"I listened to God this morning, and the thought came to me, 'any idea that keeps anybody out is too small for this age—open your heart and let everybody in—every class, every race, every nation.'"
Address to a World Assembly for Moral Re-Armament | july 1954
"Without faith, nothing is possible. With faith, nothing is impossible."
My Last Will and Testament | august 1955
curated with care by Alicia Williamson {june 2014}
Mayesville Cabin where Mary McLeod Bethune was Born
2 of Mary's sisters stand in front of the humble South Carolina home where she lived with her parents and 16 siblings. The family got by through cotton-picking, share-cropping and taking in laundry. Mary was born an educator ~ hiking to a local school at an early age and bringing what she learned home to teach neighborhood children.
State Archives of Florida | public domain
Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary poses for a portrait the year she founded her first school. The Florida all-girl school eventually merged with the Cookman Institute for Men in 1923 to become the Bethune-Cookman College {where Mary would continue serving as president until 1942}.
State Archives of Florida | Florida Memory | public domain
Daytona School with Bethune (1905)
Mary stands at the head of a long line of her attentive, uniformed students outside the Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. She opened the school with just 5 students in 1904, but Mary's efforts quickly brought the enrollment up to 250.
Florida State Archives Photographic Collection | public domain
Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt, 1943
Mary enthusiastically shakes hands with a woman eager to make her acquaintance while standing next to an equally cheery First Lady. Mary was at the head of FDR's "Black Cabinet" and a close personal friend of the family.
US National Archives | public domain
Female Florida: Historic Women in Their Own Words - Mary McLeod Bethune
Enjoy this original dramatic monologue adapted from Mary's own speeches and writings and prefaced with archival photographs from her life.
Florida Historical Society