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Educator Mary McLeod Bethune.
She was a strong black woman from the South. She was a hard-working teacher fighting for equal rights. She started a college for black women in Florida, organized the National Council of Negro Women, and advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Who was this woman? Who else could have accomplished this much in her lifetime? No one other than Mary McLeod Bethune.
This life of achievement began on July 10,1875, on a poor farm in Mayesville, South Carolina. Daughter of one-time slaves Patsy McIntosh and Sam McLeod, Mary was the fifteenth of seventeen children-the first one born into freedom. As a child, Mary wanted to learn, and asked neighboring white girls to show her what an "A" looked like. They responded, "Negroes can't read! Look at the pictures instead." But Mary was not distracted. She still felt compelled, and interested in learning. Often, Mary would talk to her Granny Sophia, who would tell stories of Africa and her heritage. Mary never forgot who she was and where she came from.
Family life for Mary revolved around cotton picking and chores. She was her father's champion cotton picker, harvesting up to 250 pounds a day. But when Miss Emma Wilson came to town and started a school for black children, Mary's life changed overnight. There had been no school for black children, and the McLeods needed all...