Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune
Bethune was an African American humanitarian, civil rights activist, stateswoman, philanthropist, humanitarian and an American educator. She was on 10th July 1875, Maysville, South Carolina in the United States, and she commonly known for her courage of starting an African American private school in Florida at Daytona Beach (Walton, 2015). Due to her positive contributions to the society, people donated both time and money to her school, which saw it growing to become a college, and later developed to a university known as Bethune-Cookman University. Bethune was very determined to change the way the African Americans were viewed in the US. This move later saw her being appointed as the national adviser of the then president, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which was part of Roosevelt’s Africa American cabinet.
Bethune’s parents were slaves, and this made her to work in the fields while young, making her to work even harder in her education after getting help from her benefactors. She attended college in order to be able to go back to Africa and do mission work. She later became a national leader, and this was after being very active in women’s clubs which were very strong at civic organization, and supported the welfare and needs of women (Walton, 2015). While being an adviser of President Roosevelt, she advised him on the apprehensions of the American Americans, thus making the president to maintain a positive relationship with the Americans who were very prone to civil wars, particularly during the national elections in the country. She also acted as a source of inspiration to many African Americans who were living in the South. Upon her death, she received honours which included the description of her home, and house which became National Historical Landmark and National Historic Site respectively.
Reference
Walton-Woodard, J. M. (2015). Colored Town: Memoir Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and Me. United States.
