Education

Mary McLeod Bethune

Born July 10, 1875 · Mayesville, South Carolina · Joined the Ancestors May 18, 1955

From a one-room schoolhouse to the White House — Mary McLeod Bethune founded a college, advised presidents, and became the most influential Black woman in American government during the New Deal era.

Known For

Founded Bethune-Cookman University

Role

Advisor to President FDR

Legacy

First Black woman to lead a federal agency

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born the fifteenth of seventeen children to parents who had been enslaved. She walked five miles each way to attend a one-room schoolhouse and became the only child in her family who learned to read.

In 1904, with $1.50 and five students, she founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, which would eventually become Bethune-Cookman University. She built it from nothing into one of the most respected HBCUs in the country.

Bethune became a close advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, serving as director of the Division of Negro Affairs within the National Youth Administration — making her the first Black woman to head a federal agency. She founded the National Council of Negro Women and spent her life fighting for education, civil rights, and the advancement of Black women.