The Life of Mary McLeod Bethune

While looking through several books, trying to find a great educator for the African American community besides Charlotte Hawkins Brown. I came to the conclusion of Mary McLeod Bethune. I thought that I should be the one to analyze such a great educator and leader, and find what she did for the African Americans as far as education was concerned and how she established her own school. It is important for me, as an African American, to learn more about other African American educators that made a difference for education and to also be a native to North Carolina’s neighboring state of South Carolina.

July 10, 1875 in Maysville, South Carolina, Samuel and Pasty McLeod had a new addition to their family, a baby girl “born to former slaves a decade after the end of the Civil War” (Mary 1). The proud parents of the baby girl decided to name her Mary Jane McLeod. Mary was born “on a rice and cotton farm and was the fifteenth of seventeen children, some of whom had been sold into enslavement” (Botsch 1). Mary was the type of child that took opportunities when they became available to her. At a young age, Mary realized the importance of education, regardless what people said about

However, Bethune not only had a love for education, she “worked not only to maintain the school, but she also aggressively fought the segregation and inequality facing blacks” (Mary 1). Bethune had a dream and she would not rest until the dream was fulfilled. The same determination that she used to open her school was also used “to fight for other equal rights for her people” (qtd. in Hudson and Wesley 5). The focus that Mary had on educating her students were on training the girls in the proper way to care for their homes.

A few years later, a woman in Detroit decided that she would pay for all of Mary’s expenses at a school in North Carolina called Scotia Seminary. After Mary attended Scotia Seminary, “she received a scholarship to the Moody Bible Institution in Chicago, where she continued to be a higher achiever” (Botsch 1). Mary’s original plans were to become a missionary and live in Africa, but there were no positions for African Americans so, Mary decided to continue on with her education.

However, Mary finally completed her studies at Moody Bible Institution; “[s]he graduated from Moody Bible Institution in 1895 and, afterward, taught school in Georgia” (qtd. in Hudson and Wesley 5). When Mary taught in Georgia, she worked under a teacher named Lucy Laney, and as a result, Mary “gained a reputation as an ‘enthusiastic’ teacher who held ‘Mission School’ classes for children gathered off the streets on Sunday afternoons” (Botsch 1). She continued to teacher there for a year. Soon after teaching school in Georgia, she taught school in South Carolina, Florida, and later in Illinois.

Due to a discussion with Thomas Marshall, action was taken to help the colored. “It was through her discussions with Vice President Thomas Marshall that the Red Cross decided to integrate, and blacks were allowed to perform the same duties as whites” (Mary 2). Bethune has served as president of several organizations. She was the president of Florida Federation of Colored Women, National Association of Colored Women, and the National Council of Negro Women.

In 1899, Mary gave birth to a baby boy named Albert. Mary did some social work, “but mainly, she concentrated on raising her son” (Botsch 1). Sadly, the marriage to her husband did not work out, but they felt for their son’s sake, they needed to stay on good terms with one another. Soon after the separation, Mary decided to move to Daytona, Florida.

In addition, sh

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