Mary Mcleod Bethune's Struggle For Gender Equality

Roosevelt selected Mary McLeod Bethune, a prominent black educator, as a special adviser on minority affairs. Bethune and a number of other blacks targeted national attention to the injustices of lynching, segregation, and disenfranchisement. The decade witnessed a historic shift in black voting patterns. She was deeply grounded in family, religion, and committed to racial advancement. Her biggest aspiration was for all African-Americans to reach “the promised land of liberty.” Bethune acclaimed herself from other race leaders by consolidating the struggle for gender equality within her push for black equality. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, Sumter County, South Carolina. She was fifteenth of seventeen children born to Patsy and Samuel, eight of whom had labored as slaves (Hanson 4). In terms of education and wealth, the McLeod family was representative of many black families in the post-Civil War: “poor and illiterate” (11). Her parents, former slaves, obtained a five-acre farm they called “The Homestead” which differentiated them from many African-American southerners who failed in the renter or sharecropping systems (Ashton 164). The farm came to be known as a resting place for travelers and ministers …show more content…
She was an active member of the National Commission for Child Welfare and was identified as an expert on black education. She was also president of regional, state, and national women’s clubs including the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, the Florida State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, and the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW). By 1935, Bethune had arranged the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). During her lifetime, Mary obtained various awards, eight honorary degrees, and made several literary contributions. She established the Mary McLeod Foundation and Bethune Beach, Inc. (Hanson