Bethune, Mary McLeod, 1875-1955

Dates

• Existence: 1875-1955

Biographical Note

Mary McLeod Bethune, noted twentieth century American educator and activist for social justice, is perhaps best known for being an instrumental part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet."

Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Mayesville, South Carolina, in 1875. Her early education was in a school operated by the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen, and she entered Scotia Seminary (later Barber-Scotia College) in 1888 and graduated in 1894. In 1898 she married Albertus Bethune, with whom she had one child; they separated in 1907.

Mary McLeod Bethune founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Training Negro Girls in Daytona, Florida, in 1904. This school merged with the Cookman Institute in 1929 and was renamed Bethune-Cookman College.

In addition to her career as an educator, Bethune helped found and/or govern some of the most significant African American organizations. In 1920, she became vice president of the National Urban League. From 1924 to 1928 she served as the president of the National Association of Colored Women. She founded the National Council of Negro Women, a coalition of hundreds of black women's organizations from across the country. From 1936 to 1950, Bethune served as president of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. In 1935, she was honored with the NAACP's highest award for achievement by African Americans, the Spingarn Medal.

Bethune was involved with the administrations of presidents Coolidge and Hoover, and she is perhaps best known for her association with the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1939, she became the director of Negro Affairs in the New Deal National Youth Administration, becoming the first African American woman to occupy such a high position in the federal government. Most notably, Bethune organized a small but influential group of black officials within Roosevelt's administration who became known as the Black Cabinet. This group worked officially and unofficially to determine, articulate, and enact an agenda for social change within black America, beginning with demands for greater benefit from New Deal programs and equal employment opportunities. Bethune also organized, in 1937, the National Conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth, which focused on social issues including better housing and health care as well as equal protection under the law for African Americans.

During World War II, Bethune was special assistant to the secretary of war and assistant director of the Women's Army Corps. In this capacity, she pressured President Roosevelt and other government and military officials to make use of the many black women eager to assist in national defense. She remained committed to causes for women and African Americans until her death in 1955.

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