Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: February 16, 2015
Caption: Mary McLeod Bethune 1875-1955
Additional Description: This c. 1925 pastel portrait of Mary McLeod Bethune by Winold Reiss hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.

“The fifteenth of seventeen children born to her formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune believed deeply in education as the main route out of poverty for herself and other African Americans. In 1904 she founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute—a school for black girls in Daytona, Florida. By 1929 that institution had blossomed into Bethune Cookman College. But perhaps Bethune's greatest impact came in the mid-1930s with her service as an adviser for the New Deal's National Youth Administration, which had been established to aid the jobless youth of the Depression. She used her position as a platform to become a powerful voice against racial discrimination throughout the federal government. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an order in 1941 requiring equal consideration for African Americans seeking jobs in the government and in the nation's defense industries, there was little doubt that Bethune's lobbying had played a major rote in bringing it about.” — National Portrait Gallery
Submitted: April 2, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p304470
File Size: 1.532 Megabytes

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