Mary McLeod Bethune

1875-1955

Bethune was the fifteenth of seventeen children born to former slaves, Samuel McLeod and Patsy (MIntosh) McLeod in Mayesville, South Carolina. While enrolled in Presbyterian Mission School in South Carolina, she received a scholarship to attend Scotia Seminary in North Carolina. Graduating in 1893 she went on to attend Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where she prepared for a career as a missionary, in order to teach the gospel in Africa. At the time however, Presbyterian Mission Board did not assign black missionaries to Africa.

Turning to education as her mission, in 1904, Bethune founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for black girls. Under her leadership the school broadened from its emphasis on vocational and religious training to include college-preparatory and teacher-training classes. The school merged with Cookman Institute in 1929 to become the Bethune-Cookman College, where Bethune was the college head until 1942.

Bethune became part of a network of women advocates who worked in various ways with the New Deal. In 1935, President Roosevelt appointed her to the National Advisory Committee of the National Youth Administration and from 1936-1944 she directed the Federal Government's Division of Negro Affairs. She was one of the highest placed African-Americans in the Roosevelt administration and the only black woman. Bethune also worked outside of the administration to advance the cause of Black civil rights. She organized and directed the Federal Council on Negro Affairs which worked to expand employment opportunities for blacks in government jobs and pushed for policies of nondiscrimination and desegregation in federal government.

Bethune's greatest and most significant achievement was leadership of organizations for black women. She began this aspect of her career by serving as president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women, which was the state branch of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), founded in 1896. In 1920 she founded and presided over the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women. And she rose to become president of the NACW from 1924 until 1928. The NACW was an organization parallel to the white women's organizations that flourished in the late 19th and 20th centures, but excluded Black women. In 1927 Bethune attended a meeting of the National Council of Women of the United States; she was the only black woman in attendance.

In 1935, in New York City, Bethune joined with the representatives of twenty-nine national black women's organizations to form the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), where she served as president from 1935 until 1949. Under Bethune's leadership NCNW programs addressed women's issues, education, employment, health, housing, and international relations. Although most members were of the middle class, NCNW programs and publications devoted attention to the problems of black working-class women.

Source: Biographies Plus, American Reformers (1985)