One leader whose story never fails to motivate is Mary McLeod Bethune. Her ability to transform her spheres of influence is worth remembering as Dallas Leadership Foundation commemorates 20 years of leading through service in Dallas with a 1940s-themed gala Oct. 1.
Bethune was born in 1875 to former slaves. She was one of 17 siblings. According to Biography.com, the whole family picked cotton to earn a living, but Bethune was the only one who got the chance to attend school. She traveled miles each day to attend class. “The whole world opened to me when I learned to read,” Bethune is quoted as saying.
Bethune received a scholarship to Scotia Seminary (Barber-Scotia College) and attended Dwight L. Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, known today as Moody Bible Institute. Although she was inspired to be a missionary to Africa when she was 12, one biographical account says that at some point Bethune was told there were no available positions for black missionaries at the time. She became a teacher instead.
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| From Wikipedia: Mary McLeod Bethune with her students in 1905. |
After working as a teacher, in 1904 Bethune started a school for girls. Classes began with five girls. Bethune and her students made sweet potato pies and sold fried fish to workers at the dump to raise school donations. Eventually, the school merged with an institution for boys and became known as Bethune-Cookman College. The college was fully accredited in 1943 and became a university in 2007.
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| From Wikipedia: Mary McLeod Bethune anEleanor Roosevelt in 1943 |
Bethune worked with Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover on social causes, but she is most remembered for her relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
During the 1930s, Bethune was appointed as a special advisor to President Roosevelt on minority affairs, and also a year later she was appointed as director of the Division for Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. She worked to make sure that black colleges participated in the Civilian Pilot Training program – which opened the door to the first African-American pilots, including the famous Tuskegee Airmen who fought in World War II. She also served as a special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of War for the selection of candidates for the Women’s Army Corps (WAC).
Bethune used the platform of friendship with the Roosevelts to spotlight the concerns of African-Americans. Bethune also served in the so-called “Black Cabinet,” which was known formally as the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, a panel of black leaders who held federal roles and who advised the White House.
Bethune, who worked to improve the lives of black women throughout the South, founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, an organization that is still active today. In 1943, she moved to Washington, D.C. at the council’s new headquarters. The council was a force against segregated conditions and a force for the betterment of black women throughout the country.
She also was an early member of the National Association of Colored People (NAACP). She joined W.E.B. DuBois and Walter White as representatives of the NAACP at the founding conference for the United Nations in 1945. She was the only black woman there.
Bethune continued to make history until her death in 1955. She wrote in her will: “Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”
Support Dallas Leadership Foundation's 20th anniversary gala by visiting http://www.dlftx.org/ and purchasing tickets or tables. You can also invite others to support DLF by sharing our posts on your favorite social networks and using the hashtag #Give2Transform.
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