Mary Mcleod Bethune Research Paper

Mary Mcleod Bethune
Bethany Hendley Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Mayesville, South Carolina in 1875. She had sixteen siblings, and her parents were slaves. Mary McLeod Bethune got married to Albertus Bethune in 1898, they had a son named Albert. Considering that Mary McLeod Bethune was born in the late 1800’s as a African American female, she had to fight extraneously hard to be treated as an equal. When Mary McLeod Bethune was younger, she worked with her mother and got to visit the white’s nurseries. One day, a white kid saw her reading and snarked the comment “She don’t know how to read.” White people assumed that because she was African American she was illiterate. As a result of this, Mary McLeod Bethune became infatuated with education and allowing blacks the equal right to receive the same education as whites. Mary McLeod Bethune received her education at Trinity Mission School, a black school with only one room. She continued her education at Scotia Seminary, and then Dwight L. Moody’s Institute. Mary McLeod Bethune pursued a career in teaching. She teamed up with Lucy Craft Laney at an Institution in Augusta, Georgia. Mary Mcleod Bethune stated that "I was so impressed with her fearlessness, her amazing touch in every respect, an energy that seemed inexhaustible and her mighty power to command respect and admiration from

Roosevelt and became a part of what was known as Black Cabinet. In 1917 Mary Mcleod Bethune became the chapter president of the NACW in Florida. Her occupation included helping blacks register to vote. Later after that, she was elected president of the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. She also founded the National Council of Negro Women, and became the Secretary of War. Mary Bethune also served as the Director of Negro Affairs. Mary Bethune also supported the case Brown v Board of Education by putting her opinion in the “Chicago