Mary Bethune: Working Toward a More Just World
A New Commentary on Luke 23:34a
“A white Daytona resident threatened Bethune’s students with a rifle. Mary worked to make an ally of him. She treated him with courtesy and developed such good with with him that he began to protect ‘the children,’ saying ‘If anybody bothers old Mary, I will protect her with my life.’”
-Texas Adams, As I Recollect
Mary McLeod Bethune was born of illiterate slave parents, the fifteenth of seventeen children and raised in poverty. She founded Bethune-Cookman College, a private school for African-American students with $1.50. It became the Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. This was just the beginning of her resume.
Director of National Youth Administration’s Negro Division
National advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt as founder and member of his Federal Council on Colored Affairs or “Black Cabinet.”
Named the “First Lady of Negro America” by Ebony Magazine and the “Female Booker T. Washington” by the Black Press
Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
And so much more1
What was her secret? Let’s hear the answer from her own spiritual autobiography, written when she was 71 years old:
“Love, not hate has been the fountain of my fulness. In streams of love that spring up within me, I have built my relationships with all mankind. When hate has been projected toward me, I have known that the person who extended it lacked spiritual understanding. I have had great pity and compassion for them. Our Heavenly Father pitieth each one of us when we fail to understand. Jesus said of those who crucified him,
Father, forgive them,
For they know not what they do.2
Because I have not given hate in return for hate, and because of my fellow-feeling for those who do not understand, I have been able to overcome hatred and gain the confidence and affection of people. Faith and love have been the most glorious and victorious defense in this “warfare” of life, and it has been my privilege to use them, and make them substantial advocates of my cause, as I press toward my goals whether they be spiritual or material ones.
…leadership must strive hard to show the value of these spiritual tools which are as real as anything we touch or feel, and far more powerful. Being possessed of these qualities has added to my courage. I think our Master, Jesus Christ, showed how the use of them in his life brought courage and determination and even the quality of righteous indignation, when it was necessary to call people to a sense of their duty. I have not cringed; I have been a fighter for the things that are just and fair for myself and for my people - yes, for all mankind.
My love is a universal factor in my experience, transcending pettiness, discrimination, segregation, narrowness, and unfair dealings with regard to my opportunities to grow and to serve. Through love and faith and determination I have been persistently facing obstacles, small and large, and I have made them stepping-stones upon which to rise.”3
“She gave out faith and hope as if they were pills and she was some sort of doctor.”
-Louis E. Martin
Journal Prompt: What can you learn from Mary? How can you integrate it into your life to make good happen today?
founded the National Council for Negro Women.
established their flagship journal Aframerican Women’s Journal.
President of the National Association of Colored Women.
Co-founded the United Negro College Fund.
a leader in the American Women’s Voluntary Services providing support services fot eh nation during WWII.
the sole African-American woman who was officially part of the U.S. delegation that created the United Nations charter.
Her house in Washington D.C. is now a National Historic Site.
Known as “The First Lady of the Struggle” for her commitment to bettering the lives of African-Americans.
A memorial sculpture stands in Lincoln Park in Washington D.C., the fist monument to honor an African-American and a woman in a public park in that city.
Schools Named for her include:
California
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Middle School, Los Angeles, California
Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School Moreno Valley, California
Florida
Bethune Academy, formally known as Bethune Elementary – Haines City, Florida
Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Florida
Mary M. Bethune Elementary School, Hollywood, Florida
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School, Riviera Beach, Florida
Georgia
Mary McLeod Bethune Middle School, Decatur, Georgia
Louisiana
Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School, New Orleans, Louisiana
Michigan
Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary-Middle School, Detroit, Michigan
Minnesota
Mary McLeod Bethune Community School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Missouri
Mary Bethune School for Black Children, Weston, Missouri
Mississippi
Mary Bethune Alternative School, Hattiesburg, Mississippi
New York
Mary McLeod Bethune School No. 45, Rochester, New York
Ohio
Mary McLeod Bethune K–8, Cleveland, Ohio
Pennsylvania
Mary McLeod Bethune School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Bethune Bowman Middle High School, Rowesville, South Carolina
Texas
Bethune Academy (now merged with Anderson Academy), Houston, Texas
Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School, Dallas, Texas
Luke 23:33-35 (King James Version)
Finkelstein, Louis, American Spiritual Autobiographies, (New York: Harper and Row, 1948 (p. 187-188)