June 8, 2024 • 4 mins
Our Way Black History Fact highlights one of the most powerful and influential women in the history of this country—Mary McLeod Bethune
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact.
And Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads.
For innovative, fashionable sportswear, checkmajorthreads dot com. Today, we're going
to talk about Mary McLeod Bethune. This is a name
that I think that you should know, and I'll tell
you why in just a second. But before we get there,
(00:24):
Mary McLeod Bethune was the daughter of formerly enslaved parents.
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune became one of the most important
Black educators, civil rights and women's rights leaders, and government
officials of the twentieth century. The college she founded set
educational standards for today's black colleges, and her role as
(00:44):
an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave African Americans
an advocate in government. Born July tenth, eighteen seventy five,
near Maysville, South Carolina, Bethune was one of the last
of Samuel and Patsy McLeod's seventeen children. After the Civil War,
her mother worked for her former owner until she could
(01:06):
buy the land on which the family grew caught. By
age nine, Bethune could pick two hundred and fifty pounds
of cotton a day. Bethune benefited from efforts to educate
African Americans after the war, Graduating in eighteen ninety four
from Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. Bethune
next attended Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions
(01:26):
in Chicago, Illinois. But with no church willing to sponsor
her as a missionary, Bethune became an educator. While teaching
in South Carolina, she married a fellow teacher, Albertus Bethune,
with whom she had a son. In eighteen ninety nine,
the Bethuns moved to Palatka, Florida, where Mary worked at
the Presbyterian Church and also sold insurance. Nineteen oh four,
(01:48):
her marriage ended, and determined to support her son, Bethune
opened a boarding school, the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial
School for training Negro girls. Eventually, Bethune School became a college,
merger with the all male Cookman Institute to form Bethune
Cookman College in nineteen twenty nine. It issued its first
degrees in nineteen forty three. A champion of racial and
(02:11):
gender equality, Bethune founded many organizations and led voter registration
drives after women gained the vote in nineteen twenty, risking
racist attacks. In nineteen twenty four, she was elected president
of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and in
nineteen thirty five she became the founding president of the
National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also played a role
(02:34):
in the transition of black voters from the Republican Party
the Party of Lincoln, to the Democratic Party during the
Great Depression. A friend of the Eleanor Roosevelt, in nineteen
thirty six, Bethune became the highest ranking African American women
in government when President Franklin Roosevelt named her Director of
Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, where she remained
until nineteen forty four. She was also a leader of
(02:56):
FDR's unofficial unofficial Black Cabinet teen thirty seven, but Thun
organized a conference on the problems of the Negro and
Negro Youth and fought to indiscrimination and lynching. In nineteen
forty she became vice president of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP, a position
she held for the rest of her life. As a
member of the advisory board of that In nineteen forty two,
(03:19):
she created the Women's Army Corps, soon ensured it was
racially integrated. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman, Bethune was
the only woman of color at the founding Conference of
the United Nations in nineteen forty five. She regularly wrote
for leading African American newspapers, The Pittsburgh Courier and the
Chicago Defender, and on nineteen On July thirteenth, nineteen twenty two,
(03:43):
Bethune became the first African American woman to be represented
with a state statue in the National Statuary All Collection
at the US Capitol. And we want to shout her
out because we are now working with the National Council
of Negro Women, one of the organizations that she founded,
and is important for you to know the history behind
the founder
Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact.
And Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads.
For innovative, fashionable sportswear, checkmajorthreads dot com. Today, we're going
to talk about Mary McLeod Bethune. This is a name
that I think that you should know, and I'll tell
you why in just a second. But before we get there,
(00:24):
Mary McLeod Bethune was the daughter of formerly enslaved parents.
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune became one of the most important
Black educators, civil rights and women's rights leaders, and government
officials of the twentieth century. The college she founded set
educational standards for today's black colleges, and her role as
(00:44):
an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave African Americans
an advocate in government. Born July tenth, eighteen seventy five,
near Maysville, South Carolina, Bethune was one of the last
of Samuel and Patsy McLeod's seventeen children. After the Civil War,
her mother worked for her former owner until she could
(01:06):
buy the land on which the family grew caught. By
age nine, Bethune could pick two hundred and fifty pounds
of cotton a day. Bethune benefited from efforts to educate
African Americans after the war, Graduating in eighteen ninety four
from Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. Bethune
next attended Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions
(01:26):
in Chicago, Illinois. But with no church willing to sponsor
her as a missionary, Bethune became an educator. While teaching
in South Carolina, she married a fellow teacher, Albertus Bethune,
with whom she had a son. In eighteen ninety nine,
the Bethuns moved to Palatka, Florida, where Mary worked at
the Presbyterian Church and also sold insurance. Nineteen oh four,
(01:48):
her marriage ended, and determined to support her son, Bethune
opened a boarding school, the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial
School for training Negro girls. Eventually, Bethune School became a college,
merger with the all male Cookman Institute to form Bethune
Cookman College in nineteen twenty nine. It issued its first
degrees in nineteen forty three. A champion of racial and
(02:11):
gender equality, Bethune founded many organizations and led voter registration
drives after women gained the vote in nineteen twenty, risking
racist attacks. In nineteen twenty four, she was elected president
of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and in
nineteen thirty five she became the founding president of the
National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also played a role
(02:34):
in the transition of black voters from the Republican Party
the Party of Lincoln, to the Democratic Party during the
Great Depression. A friend of the Eleanor Roosevelt, in nineteen
thirty six, Bethune became the highest ranking African American women
in government when President Franklin Roosevelt named her Director of
Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, where she remained
until nineteen forty four. She was also a leader of
(02:56):
FDR's unofficial unofficial Black Cabinet teen thirty seven, but Thun
organized a conference on the problems of the Negro and
Negro Youth and fought to indiscrimination and lynching. In nineteen
forty she became vice president of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP, a position
she held for the rest of her life. As a
member of the advisory board of that In nineteen forty two,
(03:19):
she created the Women's Army Corps, soon ensured it was
racially integrated. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman, Bethune was
the only woman of color at the founding Conference of
the United Nations in nineteen forty five. She regularly wrote
for leading African American newspapers, The Pittsburgh Courier and the
Chicago Defender, and on nineteen On July thirteenth, nineteen twenty two,
(03:43):
Bethune became the first African American woman to be represented
with a state statue in the National Statuary All Collection
at the US Capitol. And we want to shout her
out because we are now working with the National Council
of Negro Women, one of the organizations that she founded,
and is important for you to know the history behind
the founder
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