Mary McLeod Bethune papers
Scope and Contents
This collection consists primarily of outgoing and incoming correspondence. Primary correspondents include John Hope, Frank S. Horne, Mary W. Ovington, William Pickens, the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr., John J. Tigert, Walter White, Roy Wilkins, and Plummer Bernard Young. The correspondence is chiefly invitations to speak and letters of congratulations to Bethune after being named the recipient of the 21st Joel E. Spingarn Medal. This includes a congratulatory telegram from Herbert Hoover, then President of the United States. Other materials include two travel journals, collected essays, speeches, photographs, programs, invitations, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous articles. Several of Bethune's speeches are for commencement exercises as well as fundraising projects for Bethune-Cookman College and the National Association of Colored Women. The travel journals consist of two different journals kept by Bethune during a European tour sponored by the National Medical Association. One journal is her day journal in which Bethune noted activites and impressions, while the other records the same activities and impressions in more detailed and reflective thought.
Dates
- Created: 1923-1942
- Other: Majority of material found in 1927-1936
- Other: Date acquired: 01/01/1969
Creator
- Bethune, Mary McLeod, 1875-1955 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
None
Biographical or Historical Information
Note written by Andrew Salinas
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.
Extent
1.30 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement Note
Arranged alphabetically by format.
Custodial History
The papers were found in the files of the Race Relations Department of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries.
Source of Acquisition
Unknown
Processing Information
Processed
Creator
- Bethune, Mary McLeod, 1875-1955 (Person)
- Title
- Mary McLeod Bethune papers
- Date
- 08/18/1969
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- eng
Repository Details
Part of the Amistad Research Center Repository
6823 Saint Charles Avenue
Tilton Hall, Tulane University
New Orleans LA 70118 US
(504) 862-3222
research@amistadresearchcenter.org