View source for Mary McLeod Bethune

{{short description|American educator and civil rights leader (1875–1955)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2025}}
{{other people|Mary Bethune}}
{{Infobox person
| image              = File:Mary McLeod Bethune by Carl Van Vechten.jpg
| caption            = 1949 portrait
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1875|7|10}}
| birth_name         = Mary Jane McLeod
| birth_place        = {{nowrap|[[Mayesville, South Carolina]], U.S.}}
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1955|5|18|1875|7|10}}
| death_place        = [[Daytona Beach, Florida]], U.S.
| occupation         = {{hlist|Educator|philanthropist|humanitarian||civil rights activist}}
| spouse             = {{Marriage|Albertus Bethune|1898|1907|end=separated}}
| children           = 1
}}

'''Mary McLeod Bethune''' ({{née|'''McLeod'''}}; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, [[Philanthropy|philanthropist]], [[Humanitarianism|humanitarian]], [[Womanism|womanist]], and [[civil rights activist]]. Bethune founded the [[National Council of Negro Women]] in 1935, and proceeded to establish the ''Aframerican Women's Journal'', which was the flagship journal of the organization. She presided over other African-American women's organizations, including the [[National Association for Colored Women]]. Bethune became the first Black woman to lead a federal agency when she was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as the secretary to lead the National Youth Association (NYA).

She started a private school for African-American students which later became [[Bethune-Cookman University]]. She was the only African American woman to hold an official position with the US delegation that created the United Nations charter.<ref name="McCluskey and Smith 2001 5–6">McCluskey & Smith 2001, pp. 5–6.</ref> McLeod also held a leadership position for the [[American Women's Voluntary Services]], which was founded by [[Alice Throckmorton McLean]].<ref name="McCluskey and Smith 2001 5–6" /> Bethune wrote prolifically, publishing in several periodicals from 1924 to 1955.

After working on the presidential campaign for [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1932, she was appointed as a national advisor and worked with Roosevelt to create the Federal Council on Colored Affairs, also known as the [[Black Cabinet]].<ref name="McCluskey and Smith 2001 xii">McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. xii.</ref> Honors include the designation of her home in Daytona Beach as a [[National Historic Landmark]]<ref name="nrhpinv">{{Cite web|url={{NHLS url|id=74000655}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation/Mary McLeod Bethune Home|author=James Sheire|date=August 1974|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=March 5, 2024}}</ref> and a 1974 statue as "the first monument to honor an African American and a woman in a public park in Washington, D.C."<ref>{{cite web |title= Mary McLeod Bethune |website=statuesforequality.com |url=https://statuesforequality.com/pages/mary-mcleod-bethune |access-date=March 30, 2021 }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
[[File:Mary McLeod Bethune Cabin.jpg|thumb|200 px|The cabin in Mayesville, South Carolina, where Mary Jane McLeod was born]]
Mary Jane McLeod was born on July 10, 1875, in a small log cabin near [[Mayesville, South Carolina]], on a rice and cotton farm in [[Sumter County, South Carolina|Sumter County]].<ref name="journal1955">{{cite journal |title=Mary McLeod Bethune|jstor=2715669|journal=The Journal of Negro History|volume=40|issue=4|date=October 1955 |pages=393–395|doi=10.1086/JNHv40n4p393|s2cid=199977187}}</ref> She was the fifteenth of seventeen children born to Sam and Patsy ({{nee}} McIntosh) McLeod, both former slaves.<ref name="cookhouse">{{cite web|url=http://www.cookman.edu/subpages/Founder_of_the_College.asp |title=Bethune Cookman College Founder's Biography |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929001618/http://www.cookman.edu/subpages/Founder_of_the_College.asp |archive-date=September 29, 2007 }} Retrieved January 11, 2008.</ref><ref name="ineffable">Landfall, Dolores and Sims, J. (Summer, 1976). "Mary McLeod Bethune: The Educator; Also Including a Selected Annotated Bibliography", ''Journal of Negro Education''. '''45''' (3) pp. 342–359.</ref><ref name="usca">{{cite web|url=http://www.usca.edu/aasc/bethune.htm |title=Mary McLeod Bethune |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222121/http://www.usca.edu/aasc/bethune.htm |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }} University of South Carolina website. Retrieved January 11, 2008.</ref> Patsy McLeod worked after emancipation for her former owner, earning enough to buy five acres from him.{{efn|Historian Joyce A. Hanson describes this sale as "unusual", since many White landowners in the area had formed compacts to avoid selling land to Black people.<ref>Hanson 2018, p. 30.</ref>}} There, Sam and their sons built the log cabin in which McLeod was born.<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. 36.</ref> McLeod grew up hearing stories from her maternal grandmother, Sophie, about resistance to slavery, and both Sophie and Patsy told McLeod that she was special. McLeod credited them both with inspiring her work toward equality.<ref>Hanson 2018, pp. 25–27.</ref>

McLeod recalled noticing racial inequality as a child, observing that the Black community had access to less material wealth and opportunity.<ref>Hanson 2018, pp. 28–29.</ref> She particularly remembered visiting the home of the Wilsons—the family that had enslaved her mother—where she explored a play house while Patsy worked. McLeod picked up a book, and one of the Wilson girls admonished her with "Put down that book, you can't read." McLeod later cited the incident as contributing to her desire for literacy and education.<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. 36.</ref>

When she was twelve, McLeod saw a white mob attack and nearly hang a Black man. The man had refused to blow a match out for a White man and then had shoved him to the ground. As McLeod watched, the mob nearly hanged the Black man, stopped at the last moment by the sheriff. McLeod recalled later learning about both the terrifying effects of White violence and the value of allying with some White people, those she called "calm men of authority".<ref>Hanson 2018, p. 15.</ref>

In October 1886,<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p.285.</ref> McLeod began attending Mayesville's one-room Black schoolhouse, Trinity Mission School, which was run by the [[Presbyterian]] Board of Missions of [[Freedmen]] and founded by Emma Jane Wilson. The school was five miles from her home, and she walked there and back. Not all her siblings attended, so she taught her family what she had learned each day. In addition to founding the school, Wilson was McLeod's teacher, and became a significant mentor in her life.<ref name="moody.edu">{{Cite web|url=https://www.moody.edu/alumni/connect/news/2020/bethune/|title=Mary McLeod Bethune at Moody &#124; Alumni &#124; Moody Bible Institute|website=moody.edu|accessdate=November 8, 2022}}</ref>

Wilson had attended [[Barber-Scotia College#Scotia Seminary|Scotia Seminary]] (now [[Barber–Scotia College]]). She helped McLeod attend the same school on a scholarship,<ref>Hanson 2018, p. 37.</ref> which McLeod did from 1888 to 1894.<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. 4.</ref> She attended [[Dwight L. Moody]]'s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in [[Chicago]] (now the [[Moody Bible Institute]]) from 1894 to 1895. McLeod applied to be a missionary with the Presbyterian Board of Missions, with the goal of becoming a missionary in Africa. Although her request was denied, McLeod found a new use for the skills she had learned by teaching at Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia.<ref name="moody.edu"/>

==Marriage and family==
McLeod married Albertus Bethune in 1898. The Bethunes moved to [[Savannah, Georgia]], where she did social work until they moved to Florida. They had a son named Albert McLeod Bethune, Sr. A visiting Presbyterian minister, Coyden Harold Uggams, persuaded the couple to relocate to [[Palatka, Florida]], to run a mission school.<ref>"Mary McLeod Bethune", ''Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History''. Gale Group, 1999.</ref> The Bethunes moved in 1899; Mary ran the mission school and began an outreach to prisoners. Albertus left the family in 1907 and relocated to South Carolina. The couple never divorced, and Albertus died in 1918 from [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="Bracey">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://pq-static-content.proquest.com/collateral/media2/documents/1397_MaryMcLBethuneCollege.pdf |chapter=Introduction |title=Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune Cookman College Collection, 1922–1955 |editor-last1=Bracey, Jr. |editor-first1=John H. |editor-last2=Meier |editor-first2=August |encyclopedia=Black Studies Research Sources microfilm project |publisher=University Publications of America |year=1995 |access-date=September 18, 2024 }}</ref>

==Teaching career==

===Foundations with Lucy Craft Laney===
Bethune worked as a teacher briefly at her former school in Sumter County. In 1896, she began teaching at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in [[Augusta, Georgia]], which was part of a Presbyterian mission organized by northern congregations. It was founded and run by [[Lucy Craft Laney]], who was a Christian missionary and the daughter of former slaves. Laney ran her school with a Christian missionary zeal, emphasizing character and practical education for boys and girls who showed up eager to learn. Laney's mission was to imbue Christian moral education in her students to arm them for their life challenges. Of her year at Laney's school, Bethune said:<ref name="mccluskey1"/>
<blockquote>I was so impressed with her fearlessness, her amazing touch in every respect, an energy that seemed inexhaustible and her mighty power to command respect and admiration from her students and all who knew her. She handled her domain with the art of a master.</blockquote>

Bethune adopted many of Laney's educational philosophies, including her emphasis on educating girls and women to improve the conditions of Black people; Bethune's approach added a focus on political activism.<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. 5.</ref> After one year at Haines, Bethune was transferred by the Presbyterian mission to the Kindell Institute in [[Sumter, South Carolina]], where she met her husband.<ref name="moody.edu" />

===School in Daytona===
[[File:Daytona School with Bethune.jpg|thumb|250 px|Bethune with girls from her Daytona school, {{Circa|1905}}]] After getting married and moving to Florida, Bethune became determined to start a school for girls. Bethune moved from Palatka to Daytona because it had more economic opportunity; it had become a popular tourist destination, and businesses were thriving. In October 1904, she rented a small house for $11.00 per month. She made benches and desks from discarded crates and acquired other items through charity. Bethune started the [[Daytona Normal and Industrial School|Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls]] in 1904.<ref>{{cite web
|publisher=Florida Memory, Division of Library and Information Services, Florida Department of State
|access-date=May 25, 2018
|title=Cooking class, Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls
|url=https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/137890}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|publisher=Florida Memory, Division of Library and Information Services, Florida Department of State
|access-date=May 25, 2018
|title=Senior class, Daytona Literary and Industrial School of Training Negro Girls
|url=https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/166271}}</ref> She initially had six students—five girls and her son Albert. At this stage, tuition was 50 cents<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ostovich |first1=Marta |last2=Hart |first2=Erin |date=February 28, 1995 |title=Educator Mary McLeod Bethune |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/194785546 |journal=Duluth |volume=11 |issue=3 |id={{ProQuest|via=194785546 }}}}</ref>.The school bordered Daytona's dump. She raised money by selling homemade sweet potato pies and ice cream to crews of local workers, gathering enough to purchase additional dump land. She hired workers to build the brick building Faith Hall, paying them in part with free tuition.<ref name=Time>{{cite magazine |title=Education: Matriarch |url=https://time.com/archive/6824430/education-matriarch/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=July 27, 2024 |date=July 22, 1946}}</ref> By 1918, Faith Hall was completed along with an additional two story building and an auditorium. Later, McLeod had another building constructed further from the campus to educate boys who came to the school.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Florida |first=State Library and Archives of |title=Florida Memory • Cooking class, Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls |url=https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/137890 |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=Florida Memory |language=en}}</ref>

In the early days of her school, the students made ink for pens from [[elderberry]] juice and pencils from burned wood; they asked local businesses for furniture.<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. 67.</ref> Bethune wrote later, "I considered cash money as the smallest part of my resources. I had faith in a loving God, faith in myself, and a desire to serve."<ref>Straub, Deborah, ed., "Mary McLeod Bethune", ''Contemporary Heroes and Heroines,'' Book II. Gale Research, 1992.</ref> The school received donations of money, equipment, and labor from local Black churches. Within a year, Bethune was teaching more than 30 girls at the school.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Solodev |date=2025-04-19 |title=Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune |url=https://www.volusia.org/residents/history/volusia-stories/dr-mary-mcleod-bethune.stml |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=www.volusia.org |language=en}}</ref> After two years of operation, 250 girls were enrolled.<ref name="Time" />

Bethune also courted wealthy White organizations, such as the ladies' Palmetto Club. She invited influential White men to sit on her school board of trustees, gaining participation by [[James Gamble (industrialist)|James Gamble]] (of [[Procter & Gamble]]), Ransom Eli Olds (of Oldsmobile and REO MotorCompany) and [[Thomas H. White]] (of [[White Sewing Machine Company|White Sewing Machines]]). When [[Booker T. Washington]] of the [[Tuskegee Institute]] visited in 1912, he advised her of the importance of gaining support from White [[benefactor (law)|benefactor]]s for funding,<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. 69.</ref> suggesting a few ways of doing so.<ref>Robertson 2015, pp. 34–35.</ref>[[File:Marian Anderson and Mary McLeod Bethune at the launching of the SS Booker T Washington - 29 Sept 1942.jpg|thumb|right|250 px| Bethune and [[Marian Anderson]], celebrated contralto, at the launching of the [[SS Booker T. Washington|SS ''Booker T. Washington'']]]]

The rigorous curriculum had the girls rise at 5:30&nbsp;a.m. for Bible study. Some of the classes in their schedules contained, in home economics and industrial skills such as dressmaking, millinery, cooking, and other crafts emphasized a life of [[self-sufficiency]]. Students' days ended at 9&nbsp;p.m. Soon Bethune added science and business courses, then high school-level math, English, and foreign languages.<ref name="mccluskey1">McCluskey. Audrey. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/198654029?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals {{"'}}We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible': Black Women School Founders"], ''Signs'', 22:2, Winter 1997, pp. 403–426.</ref> <!--Needs expansion; how many students by 1910, say, and 1920, 1930. When exactly were high school classes added? How many teachers?--> Bethune always sought donations to keep her school operating, and would extend offers to wealthy white philanthropists to sit on the board in order to gain favor with them. Bethune also used her skills as a baker in order to raise money. Her friendship with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt assisted her in making connections. One of Bethune's more generous donors was John D. Rockefeller, who reportedly provided a donation of $62,000.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-15 |title=Ringing the Bell of Freedom: Mary McLeod Bethune, Education, and Sweet Potato Pie |url=https://www.castlemuseum.org/post/ringing-the-bell-of-freedom-mary-mcleod-bethune-education-and-sweet-potato-pie |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=The Castle Museum |language=en}}</ref>

Beginning in 1923, Daytona School merged with the coeducational Cookman Institute; run by the [[Methodism|Methodist church]], the institute was the first Black college in Florida. Bethune became president, at a time when Black women rarely headed colleges. The merger completed in 1925 and formed Daytona Cookman Collegiate Institute, a coeducational junior college.<ref>Robertson 2015, pp. 18–19.</ref> Through the [[Great Depression]], the school, renamed [[Bethune–Cookman University|Bethune-Cookman College]] in 1931,<ref>Robertson 2015, p. 18.</ref> continued to operate and met the educational standards of the State of Florida. Throughout the 1930s, Bethune and civil rights advocate [[Blake R. Van Leer]] worked with fellow Florida institutions to lobby for federal funding.<ref>{{cite thesis |url=http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0005121/smith_l.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226204520/http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0005121/smith_l.pdf |archive-date=December 26, 2021 |title=The New Deal and Higher Education in Florida, 1933–1939: Temporary Assistance and Tacit Promises |first=Larry Russel |last=Smith |degree=MA |publisher=University of Florida |date=2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Who Was Mary Jane McLeod Bethune? |url=https://www.historyhit.com/who-was-mary-jane-mcleod-bethune/ |website=History Hit}}</ref>

From 1936 to 1942, Bethune had to cut back her time as president because of her duties in [[Washington, D.C.]] Funding declined during this period of her absence. Nevertheless, by 1941, the college had developed a four-year curriculum and achieved full college status.<ref name="Bracey"/> By 1942, Bethune gave up the presidency, as her health was adversely affected by her many responsibilities. On September&nbsp;19, 1942, she gave the address at the [[Los Angeles]], California, launching ceremony for the Liberty ship {{SS|Booker T. Washington||2}}, a ceremony in which [[Marian Anderson]] christened the ship.<ref name=NPS>{{cite web |title=Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park, Kaiser Shipyard No. 3 (Historic American Engineering Record CA-326=M) |publisher=National Park Service |page=19|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca3300/ca3398/data/ca3398data.pdf |access-date=June 25, 2019}}</ref>

== Impact on Daytona Beach community ==

In the early 1900s, Daytona Beach didn't contain a hospital that would take in people of color, no matter the situation. Bethune had the idea to start a hospital after one of her students got appendicitis and was initially refused treatment at the local hospital. Bethune convinced the doctors to treat her student and left determined to open a hospital.<ref>Robertson 2015, pp. 29–30.</ref>

She found a cabin near the school, and through sponsors helping her raise money, she purchased it for five thousand dollars.{{cn|date=September 2024}}<!-- Possibly supported by Peare or Greenfield, cited at the end of the para w/ no page nums. Robertson, p. 30, at least supports that the hospital started in a "two-story cabin". --> In 1911, Bethune opened the first Black hospital in Daytona Beach, naming it McLeod Hospital after her parents.<ref>Robertson 2015, p. 30.</ref> It started with two beds and, within a few years, held twenty.{{efn|According to research by historian Sheila Flemming, in one year of operation the hospital "cared for 105 patients, had 316 outpatients, made 242 community calls and performed 24 operations".<ref>Flemming is quoted in Robertson 2014, p. 30.</ref>}} Both White and Black physicians worked at the hospital, along with Bethune's student nurses. This hospital went on to save many Black lives within the twenty years that it operated.<ref name="Peare 1951">{{Cite book|title=Mary McLeod Bethune|last=Peare|first=Catherine|publisher=The Vanguard Press, Inc.|year=1951|location=New York}}</ref><ref name="Greenfield 1977">{{Cite book|title=Mary McLeod Bethune|last=Greenfield|first=Eloise|publisher=Harper Collins Publishers|year=1977|isbn=0690011296|location=New York}}</ref>

During that time, both Black and White people in the community relied on help from McLeod Hospital. After an explosion at a nearby construction site, the hospital took in injured Black workers. The hospital and its nurses were also praised for their efforts with [[Spanish flu|the 1918 influenza outbreak]]. During this outbreak, the hospital was full and had to overflow into the school's auditorium.<ref name="Peare 1951"/><ref name="Greenfield 1977"/> In 1931, Daytona's public hospital, Halifax, agreed to open a separate hospital for people of color. Black people would not fully integrate into the public hospital's main location until the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://daytonatimes.com/2015/09/black-daytona-beach-in-the-1940s/|title=Black Daytona Beach in the 1940s|last=Lempel|first=Leonard|date=September 10, 2015|work=Daytona Times|access-date=December 12, 2018|archive-date=December 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207074843/http://daytonatimes.com/2015/09/black-daytona-beach-in-the-1940s/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Bethune made Daytona School's library accessible to the public, it became Florida's first free library accessible to Black Floridians.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Dionne|first=Evette|title=Lifting as we climb : Black women's battle for the ballot box|date=2020|isbn=978-0451481542|publisher=Viking|location=New York|oclc=1099569335}}</ref> She hosted a weekly story hour, which hundreds of children from the county attended, and ran a boys' club.<ref>Robertson 2015, pp. 30–31.</ref>

Concerned by a lack of affordable housing for Black people, Bethune leveraged her status as president to lobby for improved housing access. She was appointed to the city's housing board—becoming its only Black member—and she successfully pushed for a [[public housing]] project built near her school's campus.<ref>Robertson 2015, pp. 31, 33.</ref>

==Career as a public leader==
=== Suffrage activism ===
Mary McLeod Bethune joined the Equal Suffrage League, which was an organization branched off of The National Association of Colored Women in 1912.<ref name=sm>{{Cite web |title=Mary McLeod Bethune |url=https://suffragistmemorial.org/mary-mcleod-bethune-1875-1955/#:~:text=Bethune%20turned%20her%20sights%20toward,National%20Association%20of%20Colored%20Women. |website=Turning Point Suffragist Memorial}}</ref> She was an advocate for voting equality and though she couldn't yet vote, she was determined to change that for those in her community. After the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]], which enacted women's suffrage, Bethune continued her efforts to help Black people gain access to the polls. She solicited donations to help Black voters pay poll taxes, a fee voters paid to be eligible to cast their vote that was [[ Poll taxes in the United_States#Voter registration |created to discriminate against black Americans]].  She also provided tutoring for voter registration literacy tests, another discriminatory practice limiting Black Americans' ability to vote.  This took place at her school, [[Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute]].  Finally she planned and executed mass voter registration drives.<ref name=sm/><ref name=":0" />

===National Association of Colored Women===
In 1896, the [[National Association of Colored Women]] (NACW) was formed to promote the needs of Black women. Bethune served as the Florida chapter president of the NACW from 1917 to 1925. She worked to register Black voters, which was resisted by White society and had been made almost impossible by various obstacles in Florida law and practices controlled by White administrators. She was threatened by members of the resurgent [[Ku Klux Klan]] in those years.<ref name="Bracey"/> Bethune also served as the president of the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs from 1920 to 1925, which worked to improve opportunities for Black women.

She was elected national president of the NACW in 1924. While the organization struggled to raise funds for regular operations, Bethune envisioned acquiring a headquarters and hiring a professional executive secretary; she implemented this when NACW bought a property at 1318 Vermont Avenue in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.searchablemuseum.com/the-national-council-of-negro-women |title=Mary McLeod Bethune and the National Council of Negro Women |website=[[National Museum of African American History and Culture]] |access-date=September 18, 2024 }}</ref>

Gaining a national reputation, in 1928, Bethune was invited to attend the Child Welfare Conference called by Republican President [[Calvin Coolidge]]. In 1930, President [[Herbert Hoover]] appointed her to the White House Conference on Child Health.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cookman.edu/about_bcu/history/our_founder.html|title=Our Founder – Dr. Bethune|website=www.cookman.edu|language=en|access-date=May 14, 2017|archive-date=May 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512083908/https://www.cookman.edu/about_BCU/history/our_founder.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Southeastern Association of Colored Women's Clubs===
The Southeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (eventually renamed as the Southeastern Association of Colored Women's Clubs) elected Bethune as president after its first conference in 1920 at the Tuskegee Institute.<ref name="McCluskey and Smith 2001 5–6"/> They intended to reach out to Southern women (specifically White women) for support and unity in gaining rights for Black women. The women met in Memphis, Tennessee, to discuss interracial problems.<ref name="The Southeastern Herald 1924, pp. 10">122 June 30, 1921. ''The Southeastern Herald'', Florida Number, February 1924, pp. 10—11. ''Mary McLeod Bethune Papers'', Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation, Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Fla.</ref>

In many respects, all of the women agreed about what needed to be changed until they came to the topic of suffrage. The White women at the conference tried to strike down a resolution on Black suffrage. The SACWC responded by issuing a pamphlet entitled ''Southern Negro Women and Race Co-Operation;'' it delineated their demands regarding conditions in domestic service, child welfare, conditions of travel, education, lynching, the public press, and voting rights.<ref name="The Southeastern Herald 1924, pp. 10"/>

The group went on to help register Black women to vote after they were granted suffrage resulting from the passage of the constitutional amendment.<ref>Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. "Southeastern Association of Colored Women's Clubs." In Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. "Black Women in America: Religion and Community," ''Encyclopedia of Black Women in America.'' New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1997. African-American History Online. Facts On File, Inc.</ref> However, in both Florida and other Southern states, Black men and women experienced disenfranchisement by discriminatory application of literacy and comprehension tests and requirements to pay poll taxes, lengthy residency requirements, and governmental assistance upon keeping and displaying relevant records.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

===National Council of Negro Women===
In 1935 Bethune founded the [[National Council of Negro Women]] (NCNW) in [[New York City]], bringing together representatives of 28 different organizations to work to improve the lives of Black women and their communities.<ref name="McCluskey and Smith 2001 xii"/> Bethune said of the council:

<blockquote>It is our pledge to make a lasting contribution to all that is finest and best in America, to cherish and enrich her heritage of freedom and progress by working for the [[Racial integration|integration]] of all her people regardless of race, creed, or national origin, into her spiritual, social, cultural, civic, and economic life, and thus aid her to achieve the glorious destiny of a true and unfettered [[democracy]].<ref name="new">{{cite web|url=http://www.ncnw.org/about/bethune.htm |title=Mary McLeod Bethune |work=NCNW website |access-date=January 11, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124140528/http://www.ncnw.org/about/bethune.htm |archive-date=January 24, 2008 }}</ref></blockquote>

In 1938, the NCNW hosted the White House Conference on Negro Women and Children, demonstrating the importance of Black women in democratic roles. During World War II, the NCNW gained approval for Black women to be commissioned as officers in the [[Women's Army Corps]]. Bethune also served as a political appointee and the Special Assistant to the [[Secretary of War]] during the war.<ref name="Bracey"/>

In the 1990s, the headquarters for the National Council for Negro Women moved to Pennsylvania Avenue, centrally located between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. The former headquarters, where Bethune also lived at one time, has been designated as a [[National Historic Sites (United States)|National Historic Site]].

===National Youth Administration===
The [[National Youth Administration]] (NYA) was a federal agency created under Roosevelt's [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA). It provided programs specifically to promote relief and employment for young people. It focused on unemployed citizens aged sixteen to twenty-five years who were not in school.<ref name="linsin">{{Cite journal |last=Linsin |first=Christopher E. |date=1997 |title=Something More than a Creed: Mary McLeod Bethune's Aim of Integrated Autonomy as Director of Negro Affairs |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30148938 |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=20–41 |jstor=30148938 |issn=0015-4113}}</ref> Bethune lobbied the organization so aggressively and effectively for minority involvement that she earned a full-time staff position in 1936 as an assistant.

Within two years, Bethune was appointed to Director of the Division of Negro Affairs,<ref name="McCluskey and Smith 2001 xii"/> and became the first African-American female division head.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ross|first=B. Joyce|date=January 1975|title=Mary McLeod Bethune and the National Youth Administration: A Case Study of Power Relationships in the Black Cabinet of Franklin D. Roosevelt|journal=The Journal of Negro History|language=en|volume=60|issue=1|pages=1–28|doi=10.2307/2716791|issn=0022-2992|jstor=2716791|s2cid=149757274}}</ref> She managed NYA funds to help Black students through school-based programs. She was the only Black agent of the NYA who was a financial manager. She ensured Black colleges participated in the [[Civilian Pilot Training Program]], which graduated some of the first Black pilots.<ref name=" Bracey"/> The director of the NYA said in 1939: "No one can do what Mrs. Bethune can do."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Elaine M.|date=January 1996|title=Mary McLeod Bethune's "Last Will and Testament": A Legacy for Race Vindication|journal=The Journal of Negro History|language=en|volume=81|issue=1–4|pages=105–122|doi=10.1086/jnhv81n1-4p105|s2cid=141283003|issn=0022-2992}}</ref>

Bethune's determination helped national officials recognize the need to improve employment for Black youth. The NYA's final report, issued in 1943, stated,

<blockquote>more than 300,000 black young men and women were given employment and work training on NYA projects. These projects opened to these youth, training opportunities and enabled the majority of them to qualify for jobs heretofore closed to them.<ref name=linsin/></blockquote>

Within the administration, Bethune advocated for the appointment of Black NYA officials to positions of political power. Bethune's administrative assistants served as liaisons between the National Division of Negro Affairs and the NYA agencies on the state and local levels. The high number of administrative assistants composed a workforce commanded by Bethune. They helped gain a better job and salary opportunities for Black people across the country.<ref name="ross">{{Cite journal |last=Ross |first=B. Joyce |date=1975 |title=Mary McLeod Bethune and the National Youth Administration: A Case Study of Power Relationships in the Black Cabinet of Franklin D. Roosevelt |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2716791 |journal=The Journal of Negro History |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.2307/2716791 |jstor=2716791 |issn=0022-2992|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

During her tenure, Bethune also pushed federal officials to approve a program of consumer education for Blacks and a foundation for Black disabled children. She planned for studies for Black workers' education councils. National officials did not support these due to inadequate funding and fear of duplicating the work of private, non-governmental agencies.<ref name=ross/> The NYA was terminated in 1943.

===Black Cabinet===
{{See|Black Cabinet}}

[[File:(Mary McLeod Bethune), "Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and others at the opening of Midway Hall, one of two residence halls buil - NARA - 533032.jpg|thumb|Mary McLeod Bethune (left) and [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] (center), 1943]]
Bethune became a close and loyal friend of [[Eleanor Roosevelt|Eleanor]] and [[Franklin Roosevelt]]. At the Southern Conference on Human Welfare in 1938, held in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], Eleanor Roosevelt requested a seat next to Bethune despite state segregation laws. Roosevelt also referred to Bethune as "her closest friend in her age group" frequently.<ref>Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (on [[National Park Service]] website) {{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/teach-er-vk/lesson-plans/notes-er-and-civil-rights.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070104113920/http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/teach-er-vk/lesson-plans/notes-er-and-civil-rights.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 4, 2007|title=Eleanor Roosevelt and Civil Rights}} Retrieved on January 11, 2008.</ref> Bethune told Black voters about the work the Roosevelt Administration did on their behalf and made their concerns known to the Roosevelts. She had unprecedented access to the [[White House]] through her relationship with the First Lady.<ref name="Bracey"/>

She used this access to form a coalition of leaders from Black organizations called the [[Federal Council of Negro Affairs]], later known as the Black Cabinet. It served as an advisory board to the Roosevelt administration on issues facing Black people in America. It was composed of numerous talented Blacks, mostly men, who had been appointed to positions in federal agencies. This was the first collective of Black people working in higher positions in government.<ref name="Weiss, Nancy 1983">Weiss, Nancy. (1983) ''Farewell to the Party of Lincoln; Black Politics in the Age of FDR''. Princeton University Press {{ISBN|0691047030}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2015}}

It suggested to voters that the Roosevelt administration cared about Black concerns. The group met in Bethune's office or apartment informally and rarely kept meeting minutes. Although they did not create public policy directly as advisors, they gained the respect of Black voters as leaders. They also influenced political appointments and the disbursement of funds to organizations that would benefit Black people.<ref name="Weiss, Nancy 1983"/>{{page needed|date=September 2015}}

===Civil rights===
Bethune coordinated with Methodist church members during the Bethune-Cookman school merger, and she became a member of the church, but it was segregated in the South. Essentially two organizations operated in the Methodist denomination. Bethune was prominent in the primarily Black Florida Conference. While she worked to integrate the mostly White [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], she protested its initial plans for integration because they proposed separate jurisdictions based on race.<!--Explain - separate parishes?  --><ref>"Mary McLeod Bethune," ''Religious Leaders of America'', 2nd ed. Gale Group, 1999.</ref>

Bethune worked to educate both Whites and Blacks about the accomplishments and needs of Black people, writing in 1938,

<blockquote>If our people are to fight their way up out of bondage we must arm them with the sword and the shield and buckler of pride—belief in themselves and their possibilities, based upon a sure knowledge of the achievements of the past.<ref name="bethuneJNH1938">Bethune, Mary (January 1938). "Clarifying our Vision With the Facts," ''Journal of Negro History''; 23 (1), pp. 10–15.</ref></blockquote>

A year later, she wrote:

<blockquote>Not only the Negro child but children of all races should read and know of the achievements, accomplishments, and deeds of the Negro. World peace and brotherhood are based on a common understanding of the contributions and cultures of all races and creeds.<ref name="bethuneJNh1939">Bethune, Mary (January 1939). "The Adaptation of the History of the Negro to the Capacity of the Child," ''Journal of Negro History,'' 24 (1), pp. 9–13.</ref></blockquote>

Starting in 1920,<ref name="Robertson 2015, p. 24">Robertson 2015, p. 24.</ref> she opened her school to visitors and tourists in Daytona Beach on Sundays, showing off her students' accomplishments, hosting national speakers on Black issues, and taking donations. She ensured that these "Sunday Community Meetings" were integrated. A Black teenager in Daytona at the time later recalled: "Many tourists attended, sitting wherever there were empty seats. There was no special section for white people."<ref name="smith">Smith, Elaine (Winter 1996). "Mary McLeod Bethune's 'Last Will and Testament': A Legacy for Race Vindication", ''Journal of Negro History'', '''8''' (1/4), pp. 105–122.</ref> Florida law proscribed interracial meetings, a rule which Bethune ignored.<ref name="Robertson 2015, p. 24" />

When the [[United States Supreme Court|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, Bethune defended the decision by writing in the ''[[Chicago Defender]]'' that year:

<blockquote>There can be no divided democracy, no class government, no half-free county, under the constitution. Therefore, there can be no discrimination, no segregation, no separation of some citizens from the rights which belong to all.&nbsp;... We are on our way. But these are frontiers that we must conquer.&nbsp;... We must gain full equality in education&nbsp;... in the franchise&nbsp;... in economic opportunity, and full equality in the abundance of life.<ref name="People's World">{{cite web|last1=Bethune|first1=Mary McLeod|title=Today in labor history: Mary McLeod Bethune born|url=http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/today-in-labor-history-mary-mcleod-bethune-born/|website=People's World|date=10 July 2013|publisher=Long View Publishing Co.|access-date=1 February 2017}}</ref></blockquote>

Bethune organized the first [[officer candidate school]]s for Black women. She lobbied federal officials, including Roosevelt, on behalf of African-American women who wanted to join the military.

=== United Negro College Fund ===
She co-founded the [[UNCF|United Negro College Fund]] (UNCF) on April&nbsp;25, 1944, with [[William J. Trent]] and [[Frederick D. Patterson]]. The UNCF is a program which gives many different scholarships, mentorships, and job opportunities to African-American and other minority students attending any of the 37 historically Black colleges and universities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/72-years-later-united-negro-college-fund-continues-close-college-funding-gap-minorities|title=72 years later: United Negro College Fund continues to close college funding gap for minorities|last=Moffitt|first=Kelly|website=news.stlpublicradio.org|publisher=St. Louis Public Radio|language=en|access-date=February 8, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/blogs/article_1fa8d694-e92f-11e4-bd92-03ade7697779.html|title=African-American Facts for Week of: April 19, 2015|last=Johnson|first=Annette|website=Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper|date=April 22, 2015|language=en|access-date=February 8, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/beyonce-balmain-collaboration-coachella-outfits-charity-united-negro-college-fund-a8443536.html|title=Beyonce announces Balmain collaboration where all proceeds will go to charity|first=Sarah|last=Jones|date=July 12, 2018|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=February 8, 2019}}</ref> Bethune helped with its initial fundraising efforts, which gathered around $900,000 ({{Inflation|US|900,000|1944|fmt=eq|r=-5}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) in six months. Bethune continued to refer philanthropists to the fund, and she joined the board of directors in 1952.<ref>Robertson 2015, pp. 36–37,</ref>

==Death and accolades==
On May 18, 1955, Mary McLeod Bethune died of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]].<ref name="journal1955" /> Her death was followed by editorial tributes in African-American newspapers across the United States. The [[Oklahoma City]] ''Black Dispatch'' stated she was "Exhibit No. 1 for all who have faith in America and the democratic process". The ''[[Atlanta Daily World]]'' said her life was "One of the most dramatic careers ever enacted at any time upon the stage of human activity." Moreover, the ''[[Pittsburgh Courier]]'' wrote: "In any race or nation she would have been an outstanding personality and made a noteworthy contribution because her chief attribute was her indomitable soul."

The mainstream press praised her as well. ''[[Christian Century]]'' suggested, "the story of her life should be taught to every school child for generations to come." The ''[[New York Times]]'' noted she was "one of the most potent factors in the growth of interracial goodwill in America." The ''[[Washington Post]]'' said: "So great were her dynamism and force that it was almost impossible to resist her&nbsp;... Not only her own people, but all America has been enriched and ennobled by her courageous, ebullient spirit." Her hometown newspaper, the ''[[The Daytona Beach News-Journal|Daytona Beach Evening News]]'' printed, "To some, she seemed unreal, something that could not be.&nbsp;... What right had she to greatness?&nbsp;... The lesson of Mrs. Bethune's life is that genius knows no racial barriers."<ref name="Bracey"/> McLeod Bethune is buried on the campus of Bethune-Cookman University in [[Daytona Beach, Florida]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.codb.us/517/Mary-McLeod-Bethune-Home-Grave-Site | title=Mary McLeod Bethune Home & Grave Site &#124; Daytona Beach, FL – Official Website }}</ref>

==Personal life==
[[File:Mary McLeod Bethune - NARA - 559194.tif|thumb|upright|Painting of Bethune by [[Betsy Graves Reyneau]]]]

Bethune carried a cane for effect, rather than mobility support, stating that it gave her "swank". She was a [[teetotaler]] and preached [[Temperance movement|temperance]] for African Americans, chastising Blacks who were intoxicated publicly.<ref name=" Bracey"/> Bethune claimed that the students and teachers in Daytona were her first family. Her students often referred to her as "Mother Bethune".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=PhD |first1=Eileen A. Gavin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVdvhZ0R540C&q=mother+bethune&pg=PA95 |title=Women of Vision: Their Psychology, Circumstances, and Success |last2=PhD |first2=Aphrodite Clamar |last3=PhD |first3=Mary Anne Siderits |year=2007|publisher=Springer Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-8261-0110-5 |language=en}}</ref>

She was noted for achieving her goals. [[Robert C. Weaver|Robert Weaver]], who also served in Roosevelt's Black Cabinet, said of her, "She had the most marvelous gift of effecting feminine helplessness in order to attain her aims with masculine ruthlessness."<ref>Weaver, Robert (July 10, 1974). "Her Boys Remember," ''Time.'' (special publication of the National Council of Negro Women).</ref> When a White Daytona resident threatened Bethune's students with a rifle, Bethune worked to make an ally of him. The director of the McLeod Hospital recalled, "Mrs. Bethune treated him with courtesy and developed such goodwill in him that we found him protecting the children and going so far as to say, 'If anybody bothers old Mary, I will protect her with my life.'"<ref>Adams, Texas, "As I Recollect," typescript, BF.</ref>

She prioritized self-sufficiency throughout her life. Bethune invested in several businesses, including the ''[[Pittsburgh Courier]]'', a Black newspaper, and many life insurance companies. She also founded [[Central Life Insurance Company of Florida]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 4, 2021 |title=Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune: Innovator and Entrepreneur |url=https://evolve-success.com/dr-mary-mcleod-bethune-innovator-and-entrepreneur-2/ |access-date=2024-09-18 |publisher=Bethune-Cookman University |language=en-US}}</ref> and later retired in Florida. Due to state segregation, Blacks were not allowed to visit the beach. Bethune and several other business owners responded by investing in and purchasing Paradise Beach, a {{convert|2|mi|km|adj=on}} stretch of beach and the surrounding properties and then selling them to Black families. They also allowed White families to visit the waterfront. Eventually, Paradise Beach was named Bethune-Volusia Beach in her honor. She held 25% ownership of the Welricha Motel in Daytona.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://web.naplesnews.com/03/10/florida/e19482a.htm |author=Matt Grimson |title=Historically black beach disappears with integration |work=Naples Daily News |date=October 13, 2003 |access-date=January 11, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928030440/http://web.naplesnews.com/03/10/florida/e19482a.htm |archive-date=September 28, 2007 }}</ref>

== Legacy and honors ==
[[File:Mary McLeod Bethune Council House.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site]] in Washington, D.C.]]
[[File:19-22-178-museum.jpg|thumb|A painting of Bethune on display at the World Methodist Museum, [[Lake Junaluska, North Carolina]]]]
[[File:"Mary Bethune" - NARA - 559050.jpg|thumb|''Mary Bethune'' bust by [[Selma Burke]]]]

In 1930, journalist [[Ida Tarbell]] included Bethune as number 10 on her list of America's greatest women.<ref name="usca"/><ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. xi.</ref> Bethune was awarded the [[Spingarn Medal]] in 1935 by the [[NAACP]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.naacp.org/awards/spingarn-medal/winners/|title=Spingarn Medal Winners: 1915 to Today|website=[[NAACP]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001095710/http://www.naacp.org/awards/spingarn-medal/winners/|archive-date=October 1, 2016|url-status=dead|access-date=May 30, 2018}}</ref>

Bethune was the only Black woman present at the founding of the [[United Nations]] in [[San Francisco]] in 1945, representing the NAACP with [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] and [[Walter Francis White|Walter White]]. In 1949, she became the first woman to receive the [[National Order of Honour and Merit]], Haiti's highest award.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.haitiwebs.com/forums/vbarticles.php?articleid=62&do=article |title=Mary McLeod Bethune |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928222654/http://www.haitiwebs.com/forums/vbarticles.php?articleid=62&do=article |archive-date=September 28, 2007 }} Haitiwebs.com. Retrieved on January 11, 2008.</ref> She served as a U.S. emissary to the re-inauguration of President [[William V. S. Tubman]] of [[Liberia]] in 1949.<ref>McCluskey & Smith 2001, p. 262.</ref>

She also served as an adviser to five of the presidents of the United States. [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] appointed her to several government positions, which included: Special Advisor in Minority Affairs, director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, and chair of [[Federal Council of Negro Affairs]]. Among her honors, she was an assistant director of the [[Women's Army Corps]]. She was also an honorary member of [[Delta Sigma Theta]] sorority and [[Iota Phi Lambda|Iota Phi Lambda Sorority]], Inc..<ref>{{cite book | last=Giddings |first=Paula|author-link=Paula Giddings| title=In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenges of the Black Sorority Movement | year=1988 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |location=New York}} p. 84.</ref>

In 1973, Bethune was inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020810094404/http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=18|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 10, 2002|title=Mary McLeod Bethune}} National Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved on January 11, 2008.</ref> On July 10, 1974, the anniversary of her 99th birthday, the [[Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial]], by artist [[Robert Berks]], was erected in her honor in [[Lincoln Park (Washington, D.C.)]].<ref name="npslincolnpark" /> It was the first monument honoring an African American or a woman to be installed in a public park in the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]].<ref name="npslincolnpark">{{cite web|title=Lincoln Park|url=https://www.nps.gov/cahi/learn/historyculture/cahi_lincoln.htm|work=Capitol Hill Parks {{!}} District of Columbia|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=March 11, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = Lincoln Park|url = http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc87.htm|archive-url = https://archive.today/20121226174551/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc87.htm|url-status = dead|archive-date = December 26, 2012|website = www.nps.gov|access-date = February 12, 2016}}</ref> The inscription on the pedestal reads "let her works praise her" (a reference to Proverbs 31:31), while the side is engraved with passage headings from her "Last Will and Testament":

<blockquote>I leave you to love. I leave you to hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the uses of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you, finally, a responsibility to our young people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr. Bethune's Last Will & Testament |url=https://www.cookman.edu/history/last-will-testament.html |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=www.cookman.edu}}</ref></blockquote>In 1976, a portrait of Bethune, painted by artist [[Simmie Knox]], was unveiled in the [[South Carolina House of Representatives]]. as part of a day of events observing the [[United States Bicentennial]]. Speakers during the day of events included [[Dorothy Height]], President of the [[National Council of Negro Women]]; Governor [[James B. Edwards]], Senate [[president pro tempore]] [[Marion Gressette]]; House Speaker [[Rex L. Carter|Rex Carter]], Commissioner of the [[South Carolina Human Affairs Commission]] [[Jim Clyburn]] and National Council of Negro Women event Co-Chair [[Alma W. Byrd]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 10, 1976 |title=Mary McLeod Bethune Portrait Unveiling |url=https://dc.statelibrary.sc.gov/bitstream/handle/10827/12124/ARBC_Mary_McLeod_Bethune_1976-7-10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=August 9, 2023 |website=South Carolina State Library}}</ref>

In 1985, the [[U.S. Postal Service]] issued a stamp in Bethune's honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=eee440bfbe0801ec3f533f897c1d55e6a5afd5cd|title=Mary McLeod Bethune}} US Stamp Gallery. Retrieved on December 4, 2012.</ref> In 1989, ''[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]]'' magazine listed her as one of "50 Most Important Figures in Black American History". In 1999, ''[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]]'' included her as one of the "100 Most Fascinating Black Women of the 20th century".<ref>(March 1999). "100 Most Fascinating Black Women of the Twentieth Century", ''Ebony Magazine''.</ref> In 1991, the [[International Astronomical Union]] named a crater on planet [[Venus]] in her honor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/722?__fsk=-1224379603|title=Planetary names: Patera, patera: Bethune Patera on Venus|website=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature|publisher=[[U.S. Geological Survey]], [[NASA]], and the [[International Astronomical Union]]|language=en-US|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716065527/http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/722?__fsk=-1224379603|archive-date=July 16, 2012|url-status=live|access-date=May 31, 2018}}</ref>

In 1994, the [[National Park Service]] acquired Bethune's last residence,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/mamc/historyculture/places.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102003738/http://www.nps.gov/mamc/historyculture/places.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 2, 2006|title=Mary McLeod Bethune Council House}} National Park Service. Retrieved on October 27, 2011.</ref> the [[Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site|NACW Council House]] at 1318 Vermont Avenue. The former headquarters was designated as the [[Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/mamc/index.htm|title=Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site|website=[[U.S. National Park Service]]|publisher=[[United States Department of the Interior|Interior Department]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990218185714/http://www.nps.gov/mamc/index.htm|archive-date=February 18, 1999|url-status=live|access-date=May 31, 2018}}</ref>

Schools have been named in her honor in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, Phoenix, Palm Beach, Florida, Moreno Valley, California, Minneapolis, Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Folkston and College Park, Georgia, New Orleans, Rochester, New York, Cleveland, South Boston, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In 2002, scholar [[Molefi Kete Asante]] listed Bethune on his list of ''[[100 Greatest African Americans]]''.<ref>Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). ''100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia''. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. {{ISBN|1573929638}}.</ref>

The Legislature of Florida in 2018 designated her as the subject of one of Florida's two statues in the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]], replacing Confederate General [[Edmund Kirby Smith]].<ref name="Florida">{{cite web |author=Committee on Rules, Florida Senate |date=January 9, 2018 |title=Senate Bill 472 Analysis |url=https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/472/Analyses/2018s00472.rc.PDF |access-date=January 14, 2018}}</ref> The [[Statue of Mary McLeod Bethune (U.S. Capitol)|statue of Mary McLeod Bethune]] was unveiled on July 13, 2022, in the [[United States Capitol]], making her the first Black American represented in the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 13, 2022 |title=Capitol statue collection gets first Black American, replacing Confederate |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/07/13/mary-mcleod-bethune-statue-capitol/ |newspaper=washingtonpost|first= Gillian|last=Brockell}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mary Bethune statue unveiled at U.S. Capitol, first of African American – P.M. News |url=https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2022/07/13/mary-bethune-statue-unveiled-at-u-s-capitol-first-of-african-american/}}</ref> A bronze copy of the marble statue was completed by the same artist, Nilda Comas, and erected in Daytona Beach's riverfront park beside the News-Journal Center August 18, 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaffiro-Kean |first=Eileen |title=Bronze Mary McLeod Bethune statue settles in on Daytona Beach riverfront |url=https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/08/10/new-mary-mcleod-bethune-statue-now-stands-on-daytona-riverfront/10276485002/|date=August 10, 2022 |access-date=April 18, 2024 |website=Daytona Beach News-Journal}}</ref>

In 2019, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' created 89 new covers to celebrate women of the year starting from 1920; it chose Bethune for 1934.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/100-women-of-the-year/ |title=100 Women of the Year |magazine=Time |date=March 5, 2020 |access-date=March 21, 2021 |archive-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223082517/https://time.com/100-women-of-the-year/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Mary McLeod Bethune Scholarship Program, for Floridian students wishing to attend historically Black colleges and universities within the state, is named in her honor.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019|title=Mary McLeod Bethune Scholarship Program|url=https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/PDF/factsheets/MMB.pdf|access-date=June 29, 2020|website=Florida Student Financial Aid}}</ref>

A [[Statue of Mary McLeod Bethune (Jersey City)|statue of Bethune]] in [[Jersey City, New Jersey]], was dedicated in 2021 in a namesake park across the street from the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://hudsonreporter.com/2021/11/22/jersey-city-unveils-new-statue-of-mary-mcleod-bethune/|title=Jersey City unveils new statue of Mary McLeod Bethune|first=Mark|last=Koussau|newspaper= Hudson Reporter|date=November 22, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nj.com/hudson/2021/11/jersey-city-unveils-statue-to-civil-rights-leader-mary-mcleod-bethune.html|title=Jersey City unveils statue to civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune|newspaper= Jersey Journal|date=November 22, 2021}}</ref>

Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where she had enrolled in 1894, dedicated the "Bethune-Fitzwater Educational Building" on Oct 1, 2024.<ref>"Bethune-Fitzwater Educational Building Dedicated." ''Moody Alumni and Friends'' 75.2:7,8.</ref>

Bethune appears as a character in the 2024 war film [[The Six Triple Eight]], where she is depicted attempting to persuade Roosevelt of the importance of delivering mail to soldiers fighting in Europe. She is played by [[Oprah Winfrey]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/06/the-six-triple-eight-movie-review-tyler-perry|title=The Six Triple Eight review – Tyler Perry's war movie is another bomb|first=Jesse|last=Hassenger|date=6 December 2024|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=28 December 2025}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Civil rights movement|United States}}
* [[African-American history]]
* [[African-American literature]]
* [[List of African-American writers]]
* [[List of people on stamps of the United States]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Works cited ==
* {{cite book |last1=Hanson |first1=Joyce A. |title=Mary McLeod Bethune and Black Women's Political Activism |date=2018 |publisher=University of Missouri |isbn=9780826221544}}
* {{Cite book|title=Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World Essays and Selected Documents|last=McCluskey and Smith|first=Audrey Thomas and Elaine M.|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2001|pages=5–6}}
* {{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=Ashley N. |title=Mary Mcleod Bethune in Florida: Bringing Social Justice to the Sunshine State |date=2015 |publisher=History Press |location=Charleston, SC |isbn=9781626199835}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite news
|title=Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights pioneer, advised presidents on 'the problems of my people'. A statue of Bethune will soon be installed in National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol
|first=DeNeen L.
|last=Brown
|date=March 5, 2022
|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/03/01/mary-mcleod-bethune-roosevelt-statue/}}
* Rooks, Noliwe (2024). ''A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune''. New York: Penguin.
* Smith, Elaine M. "Mary McLeod Bethune: In the Leadership Orbit of Men." ''Phylon'' 59.2 (2022): 55–76.
* Thomas, Rhondda R., & Ashton, Susanna, eds. (2014). ''The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought''. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. "Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (1875–1955)", pp. 163–167.
* Wesley, C. H. (1984). ''The History of the NACW's Clubs: A legacy of service''.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.cookman.edu Bethune-Cookman University]
* [https://ncnw.org/ National Council of Negro Women]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928144403/http://www.gcah.org/Heritage_Landmarks/Bethune.htm Bethune's home as a historical landmark in Daytona]
* [https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-mary-mcleod-bethune-council-house-african-american-women-unite-for-change-teaching-with-historic-places.htm ''The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House: African American Women Unite for Change''], a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928162733/http://volusiahistory.com/mary.htm Biography and Bethune's impact on Volusia County (Daytona Beach), Florida]
* [http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4013 Mary McLeod Bethune with a Line of Girls from the School] from the [[World Digital Library]]
* [http://gradworks.umi.com/33/27/3327458.html "A Passion for Social Equality: Mary McLeod Bethune's Race Woman Leadership and the New Deal"], a political biography
* [https://www.academia.edu/2565932/CHAPTER_On_Black_Womens_Activism_The_New_Deal_and_Public_Policy_Mary_McLeod_Bethune_the_National_Council_of_Negro_Women_and_the_Prewar_Push_for_Equal_Opportunity_in_Defense_Projects_by_gloria-yvonne_in_THE_ECONOMIC_CIVIL_RIGHTS_MOVEMENT_African_Americans_and_the_Struggle_for_Economic_Power Mary McLeod Bethune, the NCNW, and the Prewar Push for Equal Opportunity in Defense Projects]
* [https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ahistoryofcentralfloridapodcast/38/ Uniforms] at [https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ahistoryofcentralfloridapodcast/ ''A History of Central Florida'' Podcast]
* [http://www.biography.com/people/mary-mcleod-bethune-9211266?page=1#acclaimed-educator Mary McLeod Bethune Biography], Biography.com, February 25, 2015
* [https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2831200056&v=2.1&u=psucic&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=67ef28a18870637538a132e089453f61 ''Encyclopedia of Race and Racism'']
* Part of her life is retold in the 1948 radio drama [https://archive.org/details/Destination.Freedom/Destination_Freedom_48-11-14_020_One_out_of_Seventeen.mp3 "One out of Seventeen"], a presentation from ''[[Destination Freedom]]'', written by [[Richard Durham]]
* [https://thehistorychicks.com/episode-223-mary-mcleod-bethune/ Biography of Bethune's life on women's history podcast]

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Florida Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Spingarn Medal}}
{{Civil rights movement}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethune, Mary Mcleod}}
[[Category:Mary McLeod Bethune]]
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[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American educators]]
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