Mary McLeod Bethune; a biography

Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1964. First Edition. Cloth. Good/fair. Octavo, pp. [9], 2-306, [2]. Green cloth-covered boards with black and gilt accents. Firm binding; no loose pages. Lightly bumped boards and a few small marks on the edges. Tanned edges and pages; no writing or marks observed inside. Dust jacket with rubbing, chips and tears, including a larger tear at front top edge. A couple of stains on the back; dust jacket now encased in a clear, protective cover. Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator and activist, serving as president of the National Association of Colored Women and founding the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Bethune was born in 1875 in South Carolina, one of seventeen children. Her parents and some of her older siblings had been enslaved before the Civil War. She attended college at the Scotia Seminary in North Carolina, after receiving a scholarship in 1888. Hoping to work overseas as a missionary, she ended up becoming a teacher after discovering most churches only sent white missionaries to postings abroad. In 1898 she married Albertus Bethune and the family settled in Daytona, Florida. In 1904, Mary founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute, which focused on practical, employable skills, including domestic science, sewing, agriculture, and teaching. Starting with just five students, within two years, enrollment had increased to 250 students. The school adapted to the needs of the African-American students and community by adding a high school and vocational program. She also started a nursing program after discovering that none of the local hospitals served Black patients. In 1923, Bethune merged her school with the older Cookman Institute for Men in Jacksonville. The new coed school was named Cookman-Bethune College. Mary served as the president of the school from its formation until 1942. By 1941, the school was a four-year college on a thirty-two-acre campus with fourteen buildings and 600 students. Bethune passed away in 1955 and since then she has been honored in many ways. In 1973, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp with her likeness in 1985. In 1994, the U.S. Park Service bought the former headquarters of the NCNW. The site is now known as the Mary Mcleod Bethune Council House National Historic Site.