One of Mary McLeod Bethune’s early memories was of picking 250 pounds of cotton a day as she worked the cotton fields along with her brothers and sisters. When the family mule died Mary was hitched to the plow to plow the furrows. Mary learned the value of hard work and responsibility. There were fifteen children in the family. She was required to help with the household chores and laundry, her mother needed all the help she could get caring for the family’s needs and washing clothes for white folks in the area.

Mary was born on July 10,1875 to parents who had both been slaves. Their names were Patsy McIntosh and Samuel McLeod. Their last names were shared by their owners and others who were owned by the rich landowners who were both of Scottish decent. Sam managed to buy his and his wife’s freedom by working for nearby farmers in the time he wasn’t laboring for his owner. They saved money to buy land and built a log cabin. They fished the streams and lived off the land along with their vegetable gardens, on the rest of the land they raised cotton for their cash crop.

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Mary was hungry to learn and when a school opened for colored children she was eager to attend. Mary graduated from the Trinity Presbyterian Mission School for Negroes in 1886 with a head full of knowledge she shared with her family. It seemed that would be the end of her education but Mary was awarded a scholarship to Scotia Seminary in Concord, NC. by a Quaker woman in Denver Colorado who wanted to give a scholarship to one promising student. The community pitched in with clothing and other necessities, and Mary was on her way. She had to work for her keep and had no money to visit home during the four lonely years at school. Mary longed to be a missionary in Africa but was refused the opportunity.

With a heavy heart she returned to her former school as a teachers assistant, but was transfered soon to Augusta, Georgia. She sent money home so her siblings could go to school and her parents could get out of debt. Mary McLeod met and married Albertus Bethune in May 1898. They had one child and apparently the marriage was over although they never divorced.

Mary’s idol was Booker T. Washington. She followed his example and opened a college called Bethune Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls in Oct.1904. She totally operated on her faith in God. Mary believed it could be done and did it. She combed the streets and dumps for anything they could use. She took the girls on the streets to sing for nickels and pennies. She went from house to house and took anything folks would give her. “These girls will be trained,” she said,”in head, hand, and heart: Their heads to think, their hands to work, and their hearts to have faith.” Many gave pennies, nickels, dollars, or whatever they could spare. Mary took it all and turned it into miracles.

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The school grew and more space was needed. Mary found a dump site she could purchase for five dollars down and five dollars a month. It wasn’t long until the dump was a thriving garden with dormitories and cottages. They raised enough food for the school and food to sale. The school was a solid place of learning for girls and boys. In 1923 Mary merged her school with Darnell Cookman Institute in Jacksonville that eventually became Bethune Cookman College.

Mary Bethune held many important positions in her lifetime. Her most far reaching work was as president of the National Association of Colored Women during president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. Their motto was: “Lifting up as we climb” She suffered a fatal heart attach on May 18, 1955. Here is some of her “bequests” she left to her people that was published in Ebony Magazine three months after her death. “I leave you love. Love builds, it is positive and hopeful. It is more beneficial than hate.Love thy neighbor is a precept which could transform the world if it were universally practiced….”

Dorothy Height who became president of the National council of Negro Women in 1957 began work on the creation of a monument honoring Mary McLeod Bethune to be placed in Washington D.C.’s Lincoln Park. The monument faces the Capitol Building and includes three figures, Mary and a girl and boy. She looks ahead and hands over her legacy to the children.

http://socyberty.com/history/all-men-are-created-equal/

http://quazen.com/reference/biography/nicholas-winston-rescued-jewish-children-from-nazis/

http://quazen.com/reference/biography/paul-jennings-white-house-slave/