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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.