Mary McLeod Bethune

Education’s Champion

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Born near Mayesville, South Carolina• While her parents and relatives had to deal with slavery

by the time Mary had been born in 1875 slavery had ended.

• African Americans didn’t go to school with white children.

• As a child she was told that she couldn’t read a book by a white child. She promised herself that some day she

would learn to read.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Soon after this experience a school was started for African Americans.

• Mary remembered how she felt when she was told that she couldn’t read.

• She worked hard to prove that the girl was wrong.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• The school didn’t have a building. They had to meet in a church.

• By the time she was 15 she had learned all she could at her school. She was one of the few people in her community who could read.

• She helped her older brothers and sisters learn things

too.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Her teacher visited her family and felt that Mary should go to high school.

• She was offered a spot at a school in Concord, North Carolina. The school was called Scotia Seminary.

• Mary jumped at the chance to go to school again.

Scotia Seminary

Mary McLeod Bethune

• The whole community was so excited for Mary that they stopped work to see her off.

• She had to go on a train from Mayesville to Concord.

• Mary had never been on a train before.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Her school was a big brick building which Mary thought was fancy. She had never been in one before.

• In fact her whole school was fancy with a bed all to herself and knives and forks.

• Mary had grown up in a simple wood cabin and she

wasn’t used to all these things.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Since she wasn’t used to this type of life she often made mistakes. She didn’t let those mistakes stop her from working hard.

• She wanted to help others and she did by helping the teachers clean their clothes and also by baking cakes and breads.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• She was on the debate team: a team that competes by making arguments for or against an idea.

• Since she listened and encouraged the other girls she was soon seen as a leader.

• After she finished going to Scotia she went to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. She wanted to become a Missionary.

• She wanted to go to Africa to be a Missionary but the churches didn’t send African Americans.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• She was sad that she couldn’t go but realized that children could use her help here in the United States.

• She decided to become a teacher. She taught at a school called the Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia.

• It was a school for African Americans and the founder of

the school, Lucy Laney, helped Mary a lot.

Lucy Laney

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Mary wanted to start a school of her own.

• She decided to start one in Daytona Beach, Florida.

• She started one there because there were so many African Americans living there. There were not enough schools there to help them.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Despite having only $1.50 Mary worked long and hard (diligence).

• People in the community helped Mary by donating clothes, supplies, and their talents to help her school get started.

• When it opened in 1904 there were only 5 students. By 1906 it had 250 students. She helped all learners: girls,

boys, and even adults.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• There wasn’t enough space so Mary had to find more. • She had to work hard to earn money to buy more land. • She asked the community and rode down dusty roads to

churches and clubs for help. Even if she didn’t receive money she didn’t give up.

• Her school grew and grew and in 1931 became a

college.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Mary knew the importance of working together. She got people to come together to help African American women.

• The clubs were made up of volunteers: people who chose to help in their communities without getting paid.

• In 1924 Mary became president of a group of African American women who came from all over the United States.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Segregation was still active during this time and white women couldn’t sit with African American women.

• During the 1920’s she was asked by President Coolidge and President Hoover to come to meetings of leaders who wanted to help children.

• She understood their authority and agreed to come.

Coolidge Hoover

Mary McLeod Bethune

• At the end of the 1920’s the depression hit. Many people were without money and jobs.

• Franklin Roosevelt helped people during this time with creating programs to help people earn money (The New Deal).

• One program was the National Youth Administration

(NYA) which gave jobs to young adults and teenagers.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Eleanor Roosevelt had met Mary and knew she wanted justice for all African American young people.

• Eleanor told Franklin about Bethune and she was asked to work for the NYA. She was given the most responsibility of any African American at this time.

• She moved to Washington, D.C. to help make sure the

NYA was helping African Americans.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Thanks to the NYA many young African Americans got jobs which helped their families.

• In 1941 Bethune-Cookman College became a four year college. Students could study all kinds of things.

• When the United States went to war in 1941 many people who had worked in the NYA had training which they used to help make equipment for the war.

• Mary was proud of all the things that she had done to help so many people.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Bethune won many awards. Many universities and organizations in the United States honored her hard work for freedom and justice.

• She received the Medal of Honor and Merit from Haiti in 1949.

• She also got to go to Africa in 1952. While in Liberia she was awarded the Star of Africa Award.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Bethune died in 1955. • Her college just celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004. • Her group, the National Council of Negro Women, is still

at work. • In 1974 Bethune was honored with a statue in D.C. in a

public park the first women and the first African American to do so.

Mary McLeod Bethune

• She worked hard for the youth of the United States.

• A famous quote– “All my life I have lived for youth, I have

begged for them and fought for them and lived for them. . . My story is their story.”

Character Traits

• Diligence: Mary showed this by working so hard for so many years to build a school.

• Respect for and Acceptance of Authority: Mary showed this by doing what the President wanted her to do.

• Justice: Mary wanted everyone to be treated fairly and have a chance to succeed.