Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod Bethune was a sociologist and a special adviser on minority affairs to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the years of the Great Depression, Dr. Bethune was director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. She served on numerous presidential commissions under Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, and Roosevelt. In 1904 she founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, which later merged with a school for boys to become Bethune Cookman College. Dr. Bethune was its president. She served as president of the National Association of Colored Women and later, in 1935, was a founder of the National Council of Negro Women. Among her many awards is the Spingarn Medal presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Mary McLeod Bethune's Signature in Stone

The fifteenth of 17 children, Ms. Bethune was born to former slaves in South Carolina.. She was an integral part of President Franklin Roosevelt's Black Cabinet--an informal group of black policy advisors and advocates to the president. Ms. Bethune founder of the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 in New York and it later headquartered in a house on Logan Circle that is now a designated National Historic Site.

The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House:
African American Women Unite for Change

The soft velvet rug that carpets the staircase that leads to the office of the president has felt the tread of many feet—famous feet and humble feet; the feet of eager workers and the feet of those in need; and tired feet, like my own, these days. I walk through our headquarters, beautifully furnished by friends who caught our vision, free from debt! I walk through the lovely reception room where the great crystal chandelier reflects the colors of the international flags massed behind it—the flags of the world! I go into the paneled library with its conference table, around which so many great minds have met to work at the problems of the past years. I feel a sense of peace. Women united around The National Council of Negro Women, have made purposeful strides in the march toward democratic living. They have moved mountains. Our headquarters is symbolic of the direction of their going, and of the quality of their leadership in the world of today and tomorrow.1

Mary McLeod Bethune wrote these moving words upon her retirement as president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in 1949. Bethune had founded the organization in 1935 to give African American women a collective national voice at a time when they were typically shunned or ignored. As NCNW grew and gained respect, Bethune spearheaded the effort to establish a national headquarters in Washington, D.C. When a red brick townhouse in the Logan Circle area became available, Bethune quickly moved to purchase it. As the first headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women, this house played a prominent role in advancing the causes of African American women around the country. From 1943 until 1966, it provided the setting for countless meetings in which NCNW members discussed pivotal national events such as the integration of the military and public schools. Here also they created and implemented programs to combat discrimination in housing, healthcare, and employment.

Bethune and the members of NCNW faced challenges of race and gender with a tireless spirit and determination. Bethune helped give a voice to African Americans and created an organization that continues to fulfill her vision more than 50 years after her death. Today the former headquarters is administered by the National Park Service as the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site.

1 As quoted in Audrey Thomas McCluskey and Elaine M. Smith, eds., Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World: Essays and Selected Documents (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999), 193.

Saving Ourselves Sisters Program SOS
HIV/AIDS & STD Education Prevention Series Recruiting Remarkable Girls 12-18 Years of Age

Learn About self-love as a key aspect of protecting oneself from being infected with or transmitting the HIV/AIDS virus.

Learn Ways to look within and recognize the enormous pride that exists in being both Black and female, embrace the opportunity to build ethnic and gender-related strengths, weaknesses, behaviors and thoughts.

For Registration call 323-301-4697 - National Council of Negro Women Los Angeles View Park Section

Each Person Completing the 8 Hour Course will receive a VISA Redeemable for $50

Click HERE for
Black HIV Summit Report
Los Angeles Region
September 2003