Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875 to enslaved parents.
I turn to her story for inspiration often.
Most know of her work of starting a school in 1904(which became Bethune-Cookman College) by selling sweet potato pies door-to-door. She was president of the college from 1923 to 1942, and from 1946 to 1947. She was one of the few women in the world to serve as a college president at that time.
And…
She did so much more.
She was an organizer…
Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established the organization’s flagship journal Aframerican Women’s Journal, and presided as a leader of many African American women’s organizations including the National Association for Colored Women and the National Youth Administration’s Negro Division.
She was an activist…
She also was appointed as a national advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom she worked with to create the Federal Council on Colored Affairs, also known as the Black Cabinet. She was the sole African American woman officially a part of the US delegation that created the United Nations charter, and she held a leadership position for the American Women’s Voluntary Services founded by Alice Throckmorton McLean. She was known as “The First Lady of The Struggle” because of her commitment to promoting better lives for African Americans.
She was her ancestors’ wildest dreams…
Born in Mayesville, South Carolina, to parents who had been slaves, she started working in fields with her family at age five.
Bethune was the only black woman present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945, representing the NAACP with W. E. B. Du Bois and Walter White.
She was a writer…
Bethune wrote prolifically, publishing in National Notes from 1924 to 1928, Pittsburgh Courier from 1937 to 1938, Aframerican Women’s Journal from 1940 to 1949, and Chicago Defender from 1948 to 1955, among others.
She was an advocate…
To address the squalor people were living in while working in turpentine camps, she initiated Baby Contests and Home Contests rewarding people for having clean and well-kept children and homes.
She was also instrumental in the creation of a hospital for Black people.
She was an institution-builder…
She found a cabin near the school, and through sponsors helping her raise money, she purchased it for five thousand dollars. In 1911, Bethune opened the first black hospital in Daytona, Florida. It started with two beds and, within a few years, held twenty. Both white and black physicians worked at the hospital, along with Bethune’s student nurses. This hospital went on to save many black lives within the twenty years that it operated.
She was an entrepreneur…
Bethune invested in several businesses, including the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper, and many life insurance companies. She also founded Central Life Insurance of Florida and later retired in Florida. Due to state segregation, blacks were not allowed to visit the beach. Bethune and several other business owners responded by investing in and purchasing Paradise Beach, a 2-mile (3.2 km) stretch of beach and the surrounding properties, selling these to black families. They also allowed white families to visit the waterfront. Eventually, Paradise Beach was named Bethune-Volusia Beach in her honor and she even held 25% ownership of the Welricha Motel in Daytona.
When I’m tired, frustrated, unsure of what to do next, I think of her and I implore myself to do SOMETHING! Because she did so much, I owe it to my community to follow in her footsteps and make a difference for as many people as I possibly can.
Thank you, Mary for leading the way. For making a way. What a woman, what a legacy. #listening4justice #MaryBethune #BethuneCookman