Introducing one amazing woman ...

As we researched the quote above for our last blog post entitled “The Next Generation of Change: Creating Anti-Racist Schools Together,” we were blown away by Mary McLeod Bethune. Do you know of her? No? Us neither … but we’ve grown today.

Please take a moment and learn a bit about her. The National Women’s History Museum calls her, “one of the most important Black educators, civil and women’s rights leaders and government officials of the twentieth century.”

Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune in 1937

For starters:

1. The 15^th of 17 children, she was born in 1875, the first child in her family born free and the first in her family to attend school.
2. At age 29 and with a total of $1.50 in venture capital, she started a school with five girls and her son; it’s now Bethune-Cookman University, with an enrollment of over 4,000 students.
3. A racial and gender activist, she served as president of the National Association of Colored Women, founding president of the National Council of Negro Women, vice-presidents of the NAACP and the National Urban League, and member of the advisory board that in 1942 created the Women’s Army Corps.
4. Bethune was a civil rights advisor to 4 US Presidents: Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, FDR and Harry Truman.
5. And (our personal favorite) she was a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt.

… and this is just some of what Mary McLeod Bethune accomplished in her almost-80 years. Please take the time to get to know her a bit. We’re glad we did.

Girls of the institute in sewing and needlework classes, circa 1905

Read More:

•  “The Next Generation of Change: Creating Anti-Racist Schools Together” blog post
•  National Park Service: "Mary McLeod Bethune"
•  National Women’s History Museum: "Mary McLeod Bethune"
•  Self-Rescuing Princess Society: "Mary McLeod Bethune: early life, education, and school"
• A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune by Noliwe Rooks

Please Note: Ms. Rooks, Department Chair and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, grew up in Florida knowing about Ms. Bethune: her grandmother studied at Bethune-Cookman University, and her family frequently visited Bethune Beach. According to the book description, “The story of how Bethune succeeded in a state with some of the highest lynching rates in the country is, in Rooks’s hands, a moving and astonishing example of the power of a mind and a vision that had few equals.” 

 

'Nuff said.

Resources

• The 4 friends image used in the quote is by Ivan Samkov from Pexels.
• Image of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune in 1937 is from the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.
• Image of Mary McLeod Bethune circa 1930 is from the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.
• Image of the students in sewing class circa 1905 is from the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.