The fifteenth
child born to former slaves, Mary McLeod Bethune was the only member of her
family to go to school. She eventually
received a scholarship to Scotia seminary where she studied to be a
missionary. But instead of Africa, where
she’d dreamed of serving, Bethune was to become a missionary of justice and
equality in her own country—the United States of America.
Bethune founded
a school for African-American women in 1904 that what would become
Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach.
Along with her
efforts in education, her civil rights work had earned her a national platform
by the mid 1920’s. Bethune would go on
to serve as an advisor on housing, child welfare, and minority issues to three
American presidents. And Eleanor Roosevelt considered her one of
her most trusted friends.
Mary Bethune
saw opportunities where others saw obstacles.
When she learned that a young black student had been refused admittance
to a hospital in Daytona Beach, she helped open one that served the African American
community. During both World Wars, she
pushed for integration in the American Red Cross and organized the first
officer’s candidate school for black women.
And when Florida segregation law restricted blacks from using public
beaches, she raised money to buy two miles of coastline as well as the
surrounding homes. She and her partners
then sold the homes to African-American families, and opened up the beach to
people of all races.
She was fond of
saying, “Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” But Scripture tells us that faith without
works is dead. Bethune is not memorable
because she had faith, but because she had a faith that worked. And she never
stopped working---for equality and justice, for
all.
And the American
dream is more than just a dream to millions of people because of her.
Mary Bethune is a hero you should know.
And I’m Dr. Ross Porter.
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