Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary Jane McLeod Bethunewas an American educator, stateswoman, philanthropist, humanitarian and civil rights activist best known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida. She attracted donations of time and money, and developed the academic school as a college. It later continued to develop as Bethune-Cookman University. She also was appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of what was known as his Black Cabinet. She was known as "The First...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth10 July 1875
CountryUnited States of America
A woman is free if she lives by her own standards and creates her own destiny, if she prizes her individuality and puts no boundaries on her hopes for tomorrow.
We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.
If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander.
If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.
Education is the great American adventure, the world's most colossal democratic experiment.
The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.
There is a place in God's sun for the youth "farthest down" who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it.
Studying goes deeper than mere reading. There are surface nuggets to be gathered but the best of the gold is underneath, and it takes time and labor to secure it.
I thought, maybe the difference between white folks and colored is just this matter of reading and writing. I made up my mind I would know my letters.
I never stop to plan. I take things step-by-step.
I have had more than half a century of such happiness. A great deal of worry and sorrow, too, but never a worry or a sorrow that was not offset by a purple iris, a lark, a bluebird, or a dewy morning glory.
You white folks have long been eating the white meat of the chicken. We Negroes are now ready for some of the white meat instead of the dark meat.
From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful every way I could.