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1875-1955
Educator
The daughter of former slaves, and one of the most widely known African American women of the twentieth century, Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, political advisor, and civil rights leader. After graduation from the Scotia Seminary in 1895, she taught at the Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia, then at Kendall Institute in Sumter, South Carolina, where she met and later married Albertus Bethune. In October 1904, Bethune founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in a small rented cabin, and continued to develop the school over the next two decades. When white hospitals denied service to black patients and training for black residents and nurses, Bethune founded McLeod Hospital to serve the community and to provide training for black physicians and nurses. By 1922, the school had over 300 students and a staff of 25, later becoming the Bethune-Cookman College. As well as working for education, Bethune founded the Circle of Negro War Relief in New York City during World War I, was vice president of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and served as president for two terms in the National Association of Colored Women, advising the Coolidge and Hoover administrations on African American issues. In 1935, Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Womenand served as president until 1949. She retired from public life on her seventy-fifth birthday in 1950, settling in her home on the campus of Bethune-Cookman College, and over the next five years received 12 honorary degrees.
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