Through the school she founded in Daytona Beach, FL—known today as Bethune-Cookman University—and later as a national organization leader and federal government official, Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) created new opportunities for women. She supported grassroots activism, emphasizing African American participation in the political system as voters AND policymakers. She built interracial coalitions, exercising collective power on a national scale to bring about major civil rights reforms.

Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in 1935. Having formerly led the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, she created NCNW as “the central Wheel” uniting activities of women’s organizations nationwide. NCNW gained political recognition and empowerment for African American women, established a national agenda for social justice issues, and helped lay the foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement. 1940 Annual Conference at then "Departmental Auditorium"

Bethune received scholarships to attend the Scotia Seminary for Girls in Concord, NC, and the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL. Scotia Seminary would later become Barber-Scotia College, one of over 100 Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) still granting degrees today. Click Find out more to see our Guide to HBCUs.

In 1923, Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Girls, founded by Bethune, merged with the Cookman Institute, a Methodist school for men in Jacksonville, FL, to form the Daytona-Cookman Collegiate Institute, known today as Bethune-Cookman University. "Negroes have begun a persistent knocking at the doors of educational services and institutions of all kinds—a knocking that will not cease until every door is open." - Mary McLeod Bethune, Message to the American Teachers Association.

As Mary McLeod Bethune pursued her work in education, she also became active in women’s organizations, rising to positions of leadership at the local, state, and national level. In 1917, she was elected president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women, and in 1920, she established the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (SFCWC) to link the activities of state club federations throughout the region. The SFCWC was soon headquartered at Tuskegee Institute.

From 1924 to 1928, Bethune served as president of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), an organization founded in 1896 by Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin. The 1935 NACW Convention met at Mount Zion Temple, in Cleveland, OH; formerly Tiferetch Israel, and currently Friendship Baptist Church. Established in 1896 under the motto “Lifting as We Climb,” the NACW promoted Black women’s political activism through a coalition of state and local organizations. Bethune seated in black jacket.

Bethune saw a need for a more centralized organization mobilizing women to advocate for civil rights at a national level, so she established the National Council of Negro Women, which she led from 1935 to 1949. "Help me draw fast the sisterly cords of love, the RACIAL cords that are bigger than our state organizations, our sectional organizations and even our own glorious National; for, as a RACE we must reach the topmost round of success, where we shall meet all other peoples on common ground."

In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Bethune Director of the Negro Affairs division of the National Youth Administration (NYA), a federal education, job training, and employment program for young people. The National Archives says the NYA worked “with local schools, hospitals, and organizations, such as the YWCA to provide girls with training in nursery school work, home economics, gardening, cafeteria work, nursing, clerical skills, and factory jobs." Bethune visits the YWCA, in DC.

As the first Black woman to hold a high-level government office, Bethune advocated for equal opportunities for African Americans and to oppose racial and gender discrimination. She organized and led the Federal Council on Negro Affairs—the so-called “Black Cabinet”—a group of Black federal officials who advised President Roosevelt on civil rights issues, here gathered in front of the Departmental Auditorium (now the Mellon Auditorium in the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building) in 1938.

During World War II, Bethune served as an advisor to the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and encouraged the recruitment of Black WAC officers. Here, she has lunch with Captain Dovey M. Johnson at the WAC Training Center at Fort Des Moines. Today, the Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center “preserves, promotes, and perpetuates the sacrifice, service, and leadership of the Black Officers of World War I, the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC) and Women’s Army Corp (WAC) of World War II.”

On November 23, 1939, Mary McLeod Bethune was a panelist on America’s Town Meeting of the Air, a weekly public affairs radio program broadcast nationwide from New York City’s Town Hall theater. Asked to speak on the topic “What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?”, Bethune addressed the problem of racial injustice and issued a powerful call to the nation to fulfill its democratic promise. There are over 170,000 NBC Radio discs at the Library of Congress, and you can hear Bethune’s address below.

Bethune continued to serve as a governmental advisor on race relations under President Harry S. Truman, and participated in the 1945 conference to draft the charter for the United Nations. The charter was adopted at the San Francisco Opera House—designed as a monument to San Francisco’s WWI war dead—on June 25, 1945. Here, Bethune stands with W.E.B. Du Bois and Walter White at the U.N. charter meeting.

In 1974, a Bethune memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC, at Lincoln Park, on Capitol Hill. A plaque reads, “I Leave You Love * I Leave You Hope * I Leave You the Challenge of Developing Confidence in One Another * I Leave You a Thirst for Education * I Leave You A Respect for the Use of Power * I Leave You also a Desire to Live Harmoniously with Your Fellow Man * I Leave You Faith * I Leave You Racial Dignity * I Leave You Finally a Responsibility to Our Young People * Mary McLeod Bethune”

In 1995, Bethune’s National Council of Negro Women relocated to the newly named Dorothy I. Height Building, a few blocks from the US Capitol—becoming the first Black organization headquartered on storied Pennsylvania Ave. The building has witnessed every Presidential Inaugural Parade since 1860. In 1913, suffragettes from across the country, including Ida B. Wells and other African American women, passed the building, whose spires, along with the Capitol, are seen behind the horse-drawn float.

In 2022, Bethune became the first Black person to be honored with a state-commissioned statue in the U.S. Capitol Building’s National Statuary Hall. It was sculpted by Nilda Comas, the first artist of Puerto Rican descent commissioned to sculpt a statue for the National Statuary Hall Collection. The Bethune statue replaced a sculpture of Edmund Kirby Smith, a Confederate general, that was removed from the Hall in 2021.

One of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Mary McLeod Bethune's extraordinary life demonstrates the powerful spirit of “making a way out of no way.” A visionary leader and consummate institution builder, Bethune worked on multiple fronts—including higher education, women’s associations, and the federal government—to advance the struggle for freedom and equality. She worked across racial lines, building national coalitions and recruiting allies to her causes. Learn more below.