Mary Mcleod Bethune : Building a Better

Once hailed as the most influential black women in the United States, Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) began her public career as a teacher in rural Florida, rising to an appointment in the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, where she assumed the role of advocate for a wide range of black interests. This volume explores the multi-faceted career of this important black leader in her roles as stateswoman, politician, educational leader, and social visionary. It offers a unique combination of original documentary sources and analysis of Bethune's life and work. The editors have selected more than seventy documents spanning fifty-three years of the public life of this remarkable woman. Included are letters, memoranda, position papers, newspaper columns, interviews, speeches, and minutes of meetings.

AUDREY THOMAS McCLUSKEY is Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies at Indiana University and has had a long association with the National Women's Studies Association. She has published widely on Bethune and other women activists and educators.

ELAINE M. SMITH is on the history faculty at Alabama State University. An authority on Bethune, she provided the introductions to the Guides to the Mary McLeod Bethune Papers.

Preface

xi

Acknowledgments

xv

Abbreviations

xvii

In Pursuit of Unalienable Rights: Mary McLeod Bethune in Historical Perspective (1875-1955)

Introduction

3

(17)

Audrey Thomas McCluskey

Document

Certain Unalienable Rights (1944)

20

(11)

Self-Revelations: ``Like Bruises on an Oyster'' (1940-1955)

Introduction

31

(4)

Audrey Thomas McCluskey

Documents

Charles S. Johnson, Interview with Bethune [abridged] (1940)

35

(15)

Spiritual Autobiography [abridged] (1946)

50

(5)

Address to a World Assembly for Moral Re-Armament in Caux, Switzerland (1954)

55

(2)

My Last Will and Testament (1955)

57

(10)

Educational Leadership: ``The Unfolding of My Soul'' (1902-1942)

Introduction

67

(8)

Audrey Thomas McCluskey

Documents

School Founder

Letter to Booker T. Washington (1902)

75

(1)

Letter to Robert Ogden (1905)

75

(1)

Sixth Annual Catalogue of the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls [abridged] (1910-11)

76

(4)

Letter to Julius Rosenwald (1915)

80

(1)

Letter to the Editor, Daytona Morning Journal (1915)

81

(1)

Letter to the Editor, New York Times (1920)

82

(1)

Letter to Mrs. Booker T. Washington (1923)

83

(1)

A Philosophy of Education for Negro Girls (1920)

84

(2)

A Tribute to My Friend and Co-Worker, Frances Reynolds Keyser (1932)

86

(2)

College President

President's Annual Address to the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools [abridged] (1924)

88

(4)

Letter to P. J. Maveety (1926)

92

(1)

Letter to Charlotte Hawkins Brown (1927)

93

(2)

Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the President [abridged] (1929)

95

(10)

A Common Cause (1932)

105

(2)

Letter to Ada Lee (1932)

107

(1)

The Educational Values of the College-Bred (1934)

108

(4)

Response, Twenty-first Spingarn Medalist (1935)

112

(3)

Letter to Jackson Davis (1935)

115

(2)

Letter to Mrs. Ferris Meigs (1935)

117

(1)

Bethune-Cookman's Next Urgent Step (1938)

118

(2)

Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt (1941)

120

(2)

Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)

122

(1)

Minutes of the Special Called Meeting of the Board of Trustees, Bethune-Cookman College [excerpt] (1942)

123

(8)

Womanist Activism: ``We Are Being Heard!'' (1917-1949)

Introduction

131

(8)

Elaine M. Smith

Documents

Home Ground

Letter to the Florida Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (1917)

139

(1)

Help Establish the Home for Delinquent Girls (1921)

140

(1)

Letter to Mrs. [F.J.] Payne and [Carrie E.] Jackson (1923)

141

(1)

Mrs. Bethune Tells of Effect of Intense Hurricane Storm on Florida's Negro People (1928)

141

(3)

Race Overtures

Letter to the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association (1920)

144

(1)

Southern Negro Women and Race Co-operation (1921)

145

(4)

Minutes of Joint Meeting [abridged] (1922)

149

(5)

Great Designs

President's Address to the Fifteenth Biennial Convention of the National Association of Colored Women (1926)

154

(9)

President's Monthly Message: Good Will and Investigation Tour Abroad during the Summer of 1927 (1927)

163

(2)

National Association of Colored Women (1928)

165

(2)

Letter to Julia West Hamilton (1933)

167

(1)

Minutes of the Organizational Meeting of the National Council of Negro Women (1935)

168

(5)

Letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1940)

173

(1)

Letter to Secretary of War Henry Stimson [abridged] (1941)

174

(1)

Report of Hospital Tour in the East [abridged] (1945)

175

(3)

Statement before the Senate Banking and Currency Committee on S. 1592 (1945)

178

(5)

Memorandum to Mrs. Harold V. Milligan (1946)

183

(3)

Americans All: Which Way, America??? (1947)

186

(3)

Don't Miss the Foot-hold! Women and the Civil Rights Report (1947)

189

(3)

Stepping Aside . . . at Seventy-four (1949)

192

(7)

Politics and Public Issues: Stateswoman in Washington (1936-1945)

Introduction

199

(8)

Elaine M. Smith

Documents

Separate but Equal

Closed Doors (1936)

207

(5)

Clarifying Our Vision with the Facts (1938)

212

(4)

National Youth Administration

Proceedings of the Second National Youth Administration Advisory Committee Meeting [excerpt] (1936)

216

(2)

Telephone Conversation with Robert S. Richey [transcript] (1938)

218

(2)

Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt (1940)

220

(1)

NYA Regional Conference on the College Work Program for Negroes [excerpt] (1940)

221

(5)

Leadership at Large

Minutes of the Federal Council on Negro Affairs (1936)

226

(3)

Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937)

229

(1)

Letter to L. C. Gray (1937)

230

(2)

Opening Statement to the Second National Conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth [transcript] (1939)

232

(3)

Memorandum to Aubrey Williams (1939)

235

(1)

Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt [draft] (1939)

236

(4)

Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt (1941)

240

(1)

The Negro and National Defense (1941)

241

(4)

Statement of Conference on Negroes in National Defense (1942)

245

(1)

What Are We Fighting For? (1942)

246

(1)

Letter to James L. Feiser (1943)

247

(1)

Tribute to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945)

248

(1)

San Francisco Conference (1945)

249

(10)

The Last Years: ``Building a Better World'' (1951-1955)

Introduction

259

(5)

Elaine M. Smith

Documents

Cultural Responsibilities

Statement to President Truman at the White House Conference (1951)

264

(3)

The Lesson of Tolerance (1952)

267

(3)

My Foundation (1954)

270

(2)

U.S. Will Make ``the Grade'' in Integrating All Its Schools (1955)

272

(2)

Holistic Living

Yes, I Went to Liberia (1952)

274

(3)

S.O.S. Call--To The Negro Citizens of America (1952)

277

(2)

Probe of Southern Conference Educational Fund Shocks Writer (1954)

279

(2)

Address to the National Council of Negro Women Brotherhood Luncheon (1955)

281

(4)

Milestones: A Selected Chronology

285

(6)

Sources

291

(6)

Bibliography

297

(10)

Index

307

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Mary Mcleod Bethune : Building a Better World, Essays and Selected Documents

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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Mary Mcleod Bethune : Building a Better World, Essays and Selected Documents

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Digital License