Bethune left legacy of public service

This month of July marks the 149th anniversary of the birth of Mary McLeod Bethune, noted civil rights pioneer and educator. Acknowledged as the “First Lady of Negro America” by Ebony Magazine in July 1949, Mary Jane McLeod was born on July 10, 1875 to former slaves in Mayesville, South Carolina.

As the fifteenth of seventeen children, Mary Jane McLeod “had the unusual opportunity to attend school and receive an education not common among African Americans following the Civil War (1861-1865).” Commenting on the power of education, she once exclaimed, “The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” And throughout the rest of her life, she always admonished youth by telling them to “believe in yourself, learn and never stop wanting to build a better world,” something she modeled during her 60 years of public service.

Until two year ago, there was no Black American represented in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C. But that all changed on July 13, 2022, with the unveiling of a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune, making her the first Black American to be represented among the 100 statues in the National Statuary Hall, replacing Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith. All of this had been done by the people in Florida, where Mary McLeod Bethune had lived for much of her adult life. At the unveiling of the statue, Senator Marco Rubio made remarks in reference to Dr. Bethune saying she was “an example of a desire to live in harmony… with our fellow citizens, an example which our nation should follow now more than ever.”

Realizing that Blacks had not been made full recipients of their American inheritance of equal protection under the laws as guaranteed in the 14th Amendment, her every effort was aimed at leveling the playing field, especially for Black youth. She became devoted in her pursuit of equal rights for Blacks, eventually earning the title, “First Lady of the Struggle.”

Having learned the value of hard work and education, Dr. Bethune worked tirelessly to improve the educational opportunities of Black Americans, especially at a time when segregation and discrimination were so prevalent throughout the country. Wanting to tap the potential of youth, Bethune opened a school for Black girls called the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute in 1904, at about the same time Professor George Herring was opening a school for Black youth in Clinton, Sampson County.

After nearly two decades of operation, her school was merged with the Cookman Institute for boys, giving birth in 1923 to what is today a leading HBCU called Bethune-Cookman University in Florida. Dr. Bethune became one of the first women to serve as president of a college in America.

During her 60 years of public service, Bethune served in the role of presidential advisor to several presidents including Roosevelt and Truman, creating a legacy that helped to influence the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.