1875 - 1955
Overview:
Mary Bethune is a person who demonstrated great personal courage in her attempts to improve educational and political opportunities for black people throughout the United States. While she tirelessly fought for what she believed was right, she avoided the use of militancy in her approach.
Country:
United States of America
Type
of hero: Civil and Political Rights
Attributes:
Courage, strength and perseverance.
Biography:
Born Mary McLeod, Mary Bethune was the fifteenth of seventeen children. Her parents were former slaves and she worked on the cotton fields herself, attending school between picking seasons. She won a scholarship to Scotia Seminary and after graduation, went to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. She taught in several schools in Georgia and South Carolina and met her future husband, George in 1898.
In 1904, her recognition of the importance of education encouraged her to establish the Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. This later merged with the Cookman Institute to become Bethune-Cookman College. She remained President at the College and on her retirement in 1942, there were over 1000 students.
With the school a success, she moved to increasing her involvement in political issues. She took on the presidency of a number of departments and organisations at a national level and in 1935, she formed the National Council of Negro Women to tackle national issues affecting blacks.
In June of 1936, she was appointed director of the Division of Negro Affairs becoming the first black woman to serve as head of a federal agency. As director, she continued to push the message of equality of opportunity for all.
Citations
& References:
Links:
http://magnet.temple.k12.tx.us/bethune/bmbeth.html
http://www.greatwomen.org/bethune.htm
http://womenshistory.about.com/education/womenshistory/library/qu/blqubeth.htm
http://www.nahc.org/NAHC/Val/Columns/SC10-6.html
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