As Black History Month comes to an end, the Black Student Movement would like to give readers the opportunity to learn about an American legend and a standout in black history before black history gets moved back to the back burner for its usual 11-month stay.
She was born on July 10, 1875 in Mayesville, S.C. Unlike many blacks in the years following slavery, she was able to get a formal education and begin her teaching career in a Georgia school. She later moved on to spread her influence at schools in Florida, Illinois and South Carolina.
While teaching in Chicago she visited prisoners and sang to them, giving them inspiration and hope for better futures. Shortly after her teaching start, she opened the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Normal Girls in 1904. While working to maintain the school, she continued to fight the segregation and inequality that oppressed her brothers and sisters. She later went on to open a high school and even a hospital for blacks.
She became increasingly involved with political issues and was able to influence the Red Cross to become integrated as well as help blacks in their struggle to perform the same societal duties as whites. This historic figure progressed to be the president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women, president of the National Association of Colored Women, and she later formed the National Council of Negro Women.
Her service continued as director of the National Youth Administration's Division of Negro Affairs, vice president of the NAACP and a committee member of President Truman's Committee of Twelve for National Defense. In 1936 she became the first black woman to serve as the head of a federal agency when she was chosen as director of the Division of Negro Affairs.
She died May 18, 1955 and has become the first black woman honored with a statue in Washington, D.C.'s Lincoln Park.
Mary McLeod Bethune, an American legend.
Lareena Jones
