Mary Mcleod Bethune Research Paper

Can you imagine being denied the right to read and write all because of the color of your skin? Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was denied this right when a white child snached a book away from her because it was illegal for a black person to learn how to read (Hine, 2000). Mary McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875 by Mayesville, South Carolina. She was an educator, civil rights leader, and government official who founded the National Council of Negro Women and Bethune-Cookman College (“National Council of Negro Women, Inc.” n.d.). Bethune’s impressive life inspired women to become anything they wanted to be by helping pave the way for black women education. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune died May 18, 1955 in Daytona Beach, Florida at the age of 79 and although she is gone her legacy lives on
Hine’s (2002) biography wrote the following: In 1935 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Bethune its highest honor, the Spingarn Medal. She received honorary degrees from ten universities, the Medal of Honor and Merit from Haiti (1949), and the Star of Africa Award from Liberia (1952). (para. 2). Once Mary had passed, the National Council of Negro Women urged the federal government to officially dedicate the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Statue at Lincoln Park in southeastern Washington, D.C., to her on July 10, 1974 (Hine, 2000). Today the Bethune-Cookman College still lives on and Mary herself is buried on school grounds, which continues to educate the nation’s African-American leaders (“National Women's History Museum.” n.d.). Mary McLeod Bethune is a reminder to everyone that anything is possible if you are passionate and apply your mind to it. As Mary Jane McLeod Bethune once said, “I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial