Thread by @RepValDemings

When Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was a child, she picked up a book. Other children, seeing that she was Black, told her "put that down, you can’t read." That moment started a lifelong commitment to education & civil rights and launched an unparalleled legacy. #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM

In her "last will and testament," she wrote, "I am aware that it will overtake me before the greatest of my dreams – full equality for the Negro in our time – is realized. Yet, I face that reality without fear or regrets."

Read it for #BlackHistoryMonth:
cookman.edu/about_bcu/hist…

Mary McLeod was the 15th child to former slaves.

Over the course of her extraordinary life, she became one of America’s leading advocates for education, civil, and voting rights, the founder of @bethunecookman, and an advisor to five U.S. presidents. #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM

That story starts in a small missionary school, five miles from the farm where her family worked. She was the only member of her family to go to school. She walked each way, doing her schoolwork by candlelight.

When no missionary opportunities were available, she turned to education, teaching for almost a decade and marrying fellow teacher Albertus Bethune. Then, in a decision that would change history, she purchased a small cottage in Florida.

She moved to Florida with a dollar and fifty cents in her pocket, and teaching a first class of five students in a bare-bones room.

Her school, the Bethune Institute for Girls, would later merge with the Cookman Institute for Boys to form @bethunecookman.

From these humble beginnings, her impact swiftly grew. She expanded her school, founded the first Black hospital in Daytona, fought for civil rights, opened the first public library for Black Floridians, and faced down a KKK mob.

Word of her bravery and abilities spread. She served in leadership roles in Florida’s premier civil rights organizations, where she fought for educational opportunity, voting rights, child welfare, workers’ rights, and an end to lynchings.

She became an advisor to five U.S. presidents. She was one of President Roosevelt’s closest advisers, and one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s closest friends.

In 1936, Roosevelt appointed her as director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, where she worked to employ over 300,000 young people.

The remainder of her life was devoted to education and the fight for liberty. She worked with the National Council of Negro Women and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She went to the U.N. She continued to fight for her school.

In her Last Will & Testament, she wrote "Faith, courage, brotherhood, dignity, ambition, responsibility -- these are needed today as never before...The Freedom Gates are half-ajar. We must pry them fully open." #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM
cookman.edu/about_bcu/hist…