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EDUCATOR

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Mary McLeod Bethune's name would appear on almost any list of famous Americans. She was renowned as an educator and as a presidential advisor, and her influence was felt throughout the country for decades.
At the end of her life, her influence was felt in the highest circles, but her beginnings were much more humble. Mary McLeod Bethune was the last of seventeen children born to South Carolina sharecroppers: the only child in the family not born into slavery. An avid learner, she make the most of the three-month-long school term that was available to her. A seamstress from Colorado offered to provide a scholarship for one black girl to study at Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina, and Mary was selected. Mary graduated from Scotia Seminary in 1893, and entered Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, with the intention of becoming a missionary to Africa. Instead of pursuing that goal, however, she found her place of service in the United States.

While teaching at Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia, Mary learned that a railroad was being built along the Atlantic coast of Florida. Aware that this project would attract hundreds of black laborers and their families, and that the children would grow up with no education, Mary decided to start a school. With only $1.50 but a real sense of mission, Mary put her efforts into founding a school. Beginning with only five students studying in old houses near a city dump in Daytona Beach, Florida, the school grew rapidly. When Bethune's school merged with Cookman Institute to become Bethune-Cookman College, it had over 600 students and 32 highly trained faculty members.

Mary McLeod Bethune's expertise was recognized beyond the educational realm. In 1935, she was awarded the NAACP'S Spingarn Medal for her outstanding national achievement. In 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed her as a director in the National Youth Administration, beginning Bethune's new career of public service at the highest levels of the United States government.

FLASH-FACTS

Founded a school with $1.50
Served as president of Bethune-Cookman College
Served as a presidential advisor