Mary McLeod Bethune

“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.”

• Mary McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875 near Mayesville, South Carolina.

• Mary’s parents and many other African Americas in this area had been enslaved.

• By 1875, when Mary was born, slavery had ended.

• Even though slavery had ended, African American children could not go to school with white children.

• This was called segregation.

What does segregation mean?

Segregation is a system of keeping people of different races separate.

• Emma Wilson started a school in Mayesville for African American children and Mary attended this school.

• By the time Mary was fifteen, she learned all that she could at Miss Wilson’s school.

• Mary taught her older brother and others what she knew. She was one of the few people in her community who could read and she read aloud to her neighbors from the newspapers and from the Bible.

• Mary was a bright child and earned the privilege of attending Scotia Seminary.

• Scotia Seminary was a school that was just for African American teenage girls in Concord, North Carolina.

Then Now

• At Scotia Seminary, all the students worked to keep the school clean. They did laundry, baked bread, and scrubbed floors.

Class picture in 1891

• Mary learned how to argue for her ideas on the debate team.

What is a debate team?

A debate team is a team that competes by making arguments for or against an idea.

• When Mary finished at Scotia Seminary, she went to Chicago, Illinois where she studied at the Moody Bible Institute.

• She wanted to be a missionary and teach people about her religion.

What is a missionary?

A missionary is a person who helps people while teaching them about a religion.

• Mary McLeod Bethune hoped to go to Africa, but churches that sent missionaries to Africa did not want to send African Americans.

Where is Africa located?

• Mary realized that children in the United States could use her help and she became a teacher.

• She taught at a school called the Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia.

Mary McLeod Bethune decided to start a school in Daytona Beach, Florida.

She only had $1.50 to start a school and lots of diligence.

What does diligence mean?

Diligence means to work hard over a long period of time.

• In 1904, the school opened with 5 students. Two years later, it had 250 students.

• Most of the students were girls, but adults came to the school after work to learn at night.

• Soon the school needed more room. Mary found an empty field for sale for the cost of $250.00. She paid the seller five dollars by the end of the week by baking and selling pies.

By 1931, the school became a college called Bethune-Cookman College.

Mary started clubs to “harness (capture) the great power”

of African American women.

Women in these clubs were volunteers.

What is a volunteer?

A volunteer is a person who helps people or groups without pay.

• Mary McLeod Bethune used her debating skills and argued against segregation.

What definition did we use for segregation?

Segregation is a system of keeping people of different races separate.

• At the end of the 1920s, a depression began in the United States.

What is a depression?

A depression is a time when many people lose jobs and companies go out of business.

• Mary McLeod Bethune worked in the NYA, the National Youth Administration, which created jobs for teenagers and young adults.

• Her job was to make sure that the NYA helped African Americans.

In 1941, Bethune-Cookman College became a four-year college.

• Mary McLeod Bethune’s dream of going to Africa came true. She went to Africa in 1952.

Mary McLeod Bethune died in 1955.

In 1974, Bethune became the first woman and the first African American

to be honored with a statue in a public park in Washington, D.C.

“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.”

Most important is the way Bethune changed the lives of students and

young workers throughout the United States.

What have you learned about Mary McLeod Bethune?