WEBVTT - 060824 Way Black History Fact - Mary McLeod Bethune

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<v Speaker 1>Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact.

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<v Speaker 1>And Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads.

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<v Speaker 1>For innovative, fashionable sportswear, checkmajorthreads dot com. Today, we're going

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<v Speaker 1>to talk about Mary McLeod Bethune. This is a name

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<v Speaker 1>that I think that you should know, and I'll tell

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<v Speaker 1>you why in just a second. But before we get there,

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<v Speaker 1>Mary McLeod Bethune was the daughter of formerly enslaved parents.

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<v Speaker 1>Mary Jane McLeod Bethune became one of the most important

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<v Speaker 1>Black educators, civil rights and women's rights leaders, and government

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<v Speaker 1>officials of the twentieth century. The college she founded set

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<v Speaker 1>educational standards for today's black colleges, and her role as

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<v Speaker 1>an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave African Americans

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<v Speaker 1>an advocate in government. Born July tenth, eighteen seventy five,

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<v Speaker 1>near Maysville, South Carolina, Bethune was one of the last

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<v Speaker 1>of Samuel and Patsy McLeod's seventeen children. After the Civil War,

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<v Speaker 1>her mother worked for her former owner until she could

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<v Speaker 1>buy the land on which the family grew caught. By

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<v Speaker 1>age nine, Bethune could pick two hundred and fifty pounds

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<v Speaker 1>of cotton a day. Bethune benefited from efforts to educate

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<v Speaker 1>African Americans after the war, Graduating in eighteen ninety four

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<v Speaker 1>from Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. Bethune

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<v Speaker 1>next attended Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions

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<v Speaker 1>in Chicago, Illinois. But with no church willing to sponsor

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<v Speaker 1>her as a missionary, Bethune became an educator. While teaching

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<v Speaker 1>in South Carolina, she married a fellow teacher, Albertus Bethune,

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<v Speaker 1>with whom she had a son. In eighteen ninety nine,

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<v Speaker 1>the Bethuns moved to Palatka, Florida, where Mary worked at

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<v Speaker 1>the Presbyterian Church and also sold insurance. Nineteen oh four,

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<v Speaker 1>her marriage ended, and determined to support her son, Bethune

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<v Speaker 1>opened a boarding school, the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial

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<v Speaker 1>School for training Negro girls. Eventually, Bethune School became a college,

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<v Speaker 1>merger with the all male Cookman Institute to form Bethune

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<v Speaker 1>Cookman College in nineteen twenty nine. It issued its first

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<v Speaker 1>degrees in nineteen forty three. A champion of racial and

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<v Speaker 1>gender equality, Bethune founded many organizations and led voter registration

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<v Speaker 1>drives after women gained the vote in nineteen twenty, risking

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<v Speaker 1>racist attacks. In nineteen twenty four, she was elected president

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<v Speaker 1>of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen thirty five she became the founding president of the

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<v Speaker 1>National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also played a role

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<v Speaker 1>in the transition of black voters from the Republican Party

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<v Speaker 1>the Party of Lincoln, to the Democratic Party during the

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<v Speaker 1>Great Depression. A friend of the Eleanor Roosevelt, in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>thirty six, Bethune became the highest ranking African American women

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<v Speaker 1>in government when President Franklin Roosevelt named her Director of

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<v Speaker 1>Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, where she remained

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<v Speaker 1>until nineteen forty four. She was also a leader of

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<v Speaker 1>FDR's unofficial unofficial Black Cabinet teen thirty seven, but Thun

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<v Speaker 1>organized a conference on the problems of the Negro and

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<v Speaker 1>Negro Youth and fought to indiscrimination and lynching. In nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>forty she became vice president of the National Association for

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<v Speaker 1>the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP, a position

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<v Speaker 1>she held for the rest of her life. As a

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<v Speaker 1>member of the advisory board of that In nineteen forty two,

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<v Speaker 1>she created the Women's Army Corps, soon ensured it was

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<v Speaker 1>racially integrated. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman, Bethune was

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<v Speaker 1>the only woman of color at the founding Conference of

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<v Speaker 1>the United Nations in nineteen forty five. She regularly wrote

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<v Speaker 1>for leading African American newspapers, The Pittsburgh Courier and the

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<v Speaker 1>Chicago Defender, and on nineteen On July thirteenth, nineteen twenty two,

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<v Speaker 1>Bethune became the first African American woman to be represented

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<v Speaker 1>with a state statue in the National Statuary All Collection

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<v Speaker 1>at the US Capitol. And we want to shout her

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<v Speaker 1>out because we are now working with the National Council

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<v Speaker 1>of Negro Women, one of the organizations that she founded,

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<v Speaker 1>and is important for you to know the history behind

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<v Speaker 1>the founder