Mary Mc Leod Bethune 1875 1955 1875 Mary

Mary Mc. Leod Bethune (1875 -1955)

1875 Mary Mc. Leod Bethune was born in Mayesville, SC. (Slavery had just ended)

As a child, white kids told her she couldn’t read. This made her even more determined to learn.

She went to school for African Americans in a church. Her teacher was Emma Wilson. She learned all she could before she left school at age 15.

She was offered a chance to go to Scotia Seminary…. an upscale high school for girls.

She became a teacher at an African. American school, Haines Institute, in Augusta, GA.

1904 Bethune started her OWN school for girls, in Daytona Beach, FL with only $1. 50. Community members helped raise money to get the school started.

1924 Bethune started “women’s clubs” to capture the power of African American women. They raised money to provide health care for African children.

Great Depression: (end of 1920 s – early 1930 s) President Franklin Roosevelt hired Bethune to work in NYA. The National Youth Administration helped African Americans get jobs.

1931 Bethune’s school expanded and became a college. 1941 The college was named Bethune-Cookman College after Mary Mc. Leod Bethune

Bethune won many awards and was honored in other countries.

1974 Bethune was the 1 st African. American woman to be honored with a statue in a park in Washington D. C. Her photo is on a United States stamp.