MARY McLEOD BETHUNE

MARY McLEOD BETHUNE

Teacher of Head, Hands, and Heart

Sam and Patsy McLeod and ten of their children were born into slavery on a cotton plantation in Mayesville, South Carolina. But the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 ended five generations of slavery for the McLeod family, and their fifteenth child, Mary Jane, who came into the world on July 10, 1875, was born free.

But "born free" for blacks in the South didn’t necessarily mean "equal." As Mary struggled to understand her world, she decided the main difference between white people and black people was that white people could read. To go to school became her burning passion. When a school for Negro children was finally started in Mayesville, eleven-year-old Mary became an eager student.

Within a few years, the teacher recommended her for a scholarship to Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina—a school for the daughters of "freedmen"—where Mary studied literature, Greek, Latin, the Bible, and American democracy. She soaked up knowledge like a thirsty sponge, but she also wanted to give back what she learned. Deciding to become a missionary to her own people back in Africa, she attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. But when she graduated and applied to the Presbyterian Mission Board, she was told: "We have no openings for a colored missionary in Africa."

It was the bitterest disappointment of Mary’s life. But it was also a turning point. If she couldn’t go to Africa, she would teach her people right here at home in the South.

While teaching at Kendell Institute in Sumter, Georgia, she met a handsome young teacher named Albertus Bethune, whom she married in 1898. A year later Albertus Jr. was born.

But Mary’s dream of "giving back" deepened. She was glad for the Negro colleges that were being formed at the turn of the century—but what good was a college when so many black children in the south couldn’t even read? In her mind was a school where young girls and boys would not only learn useful trades, but the arts and sciences and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. "Greek and a toothbrush!" she’d laugh when someone asked her philosophy of education.

Wealthy whites were going south to Florida during the harsh northern winters. This meant jobs for blacks working on the new railroad and putting up the new hotels. Shantytowns grew up for these workers near resort towns like Daytona Beach. This became Mary McLeod Bethune’s mission field. She determined to build a school to teach the head (classical education), hands (practical education), and heart (spiritual education). In 1904 she started with five little girls . . . and by 1923, her vision had become Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona, Florida.

When Mrs. Bethune died in 1955, she had not only served as an inspiration to thousands of young black people, but as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She worked tirelessly for the Urban League, the NAACP, National Council of Negro Women, the National Youth Administration, and the Federal Council of Negro Affairs. In her will she stated: "I leave you love . . . I leave you hope . . . I leave you a thirst for education . . . I leave, finally, a responsibility to our young people."