Mary McLeod Bethune was often called the "First Lady of Negro America," but she made significant contributions to the political climate of Florida as well. From the founding of the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls in 1904, Bethune galvanized African American women for change. She created an environment in Daytona Beach that, despite racial tension throughout the state, allowed Jackie Robinson to begin his journey to integrating Major League Baseball less than two miles away from her school. Today, her legacy lives through a number of institutions, including Bethune-Cookman University and the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation National Historic Landmark. Historian Ashley Robertson explores the life, leadership and amazing contributions of this dynamic activist.

A biography in documents of one of America's most influential black women. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

"Mary McCleod Bethune, one half of the historic founders of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona, Florida, rose from humble beginning as the daughter of former slaves and a field hand from the age of five to initiate a school for African American girls that would become today's university. Yahya Jongintaba explores Bethune's religious upbringing in an impoverished South, her hard-nosed work ethic, and her strongly held religious beliefs that would lead her to found an industrial training school for girls in turn of the twentieth century Florida. Jongintaba, using the large archival holdings of Bethune's personal writings and speeches, argues that by viewing Bethune's life through her religious convictions, readers can better understand the historical dimensions surrounding an already heralded leader"--

"Read about Mary McLeod Bethune's life. Discover how she started a school, and worked in the White House"--Provided by publisher.

The epic history of African American women's pursuit of political power -- and how it transformed America. In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this overwhelmingly white women's movement did not win the vote for most black women. Securing their rights required a movement of their own. In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women's political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of black women -- Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more -- who were the vanguard of women's rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals.

This book is easy and interesting reading. It presents the "Life and Legacy" of the late Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune holistically and concludes with testimonies from living witnesses. The author narrates Dr. Bethune's early years and documents how developments in those years influenced her later accomplishments. Permeating Dr. Bethune's spectacular career is a philosophy based on deep religious convictions and held that "work was honorable, no matter how menial the task.

The state of Florida has a rich history of African Americans who have contributed to the advancement and growth of today. From slaves to millionaires, African Americans from all walks of life resided in cabins, homes, and stately mansions. The lives of millionaires, educators, businessmen, community leaders, and innovators in Florida's history are explored in each residence. Mary McLeod Bethune, A.L. Lewis, and D.A. Dorsey are a few of the prominent African Americans who not only resided in the state of Florida but also created opportunities for other blacks to further their lives in education and ownership of property and to have a better quality of life. One of the most humanistic traits found in history is the home of someone who has added something of value to society. Today, some of these residences serve as house museums, community art galleries, cultural institutions, and monuments that interpret and share the legacy of their owners.

‘During the years following the Civil War in rural South Carolina where opportunities for blacks to go to school were nonexistent, [Mary McLeod Bethune had to overcome many obstacles to pursue her dream of education for all children]. Simply told, this biography of an outstanding black educator has excellent illustrations.' 'SLJ. Children's Books of 1977 (Library of Congress)

An in-depth history exploring the evolution, impact, and ultimate demise of what was known in the 1930s and ‘40s as FDR’s Black Cabinet. In 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency with the help of key African American defectors from the Republican Party. At the time, most African Americans lived in poverty, denied citizenship rights and terrorized by white violence. As the New Deal began, a “black Brain Trust” joined the administration and began documenting and addressing the economic hardship and systemic inequalities African Americans faced. They became known as the Black Cabinet, but the environment they faced was reluctant, often hostile, to change. “Will the New Deal be a square deal for the Negro?” The black press wondered. The Black Cabinet set out to devise solutions to the widespread exclusion of black people from its programs, whether by inventing tools to measure discrimination or by calling attention to the administration’s failures. Led by Mary McLeod Bethune, an educator and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, they were instrumental to Roosevelt’s continued success with black voters. Operating mostly behind the scenes, they helped push Roosevelt to sign an executive order that outlawed discrimination in the defense industry. They saw victories?jobs and collective agriculture programs that lifted many from poverty?and defeats?the bulldozing of black neighborhoods to build public housing reserved only for whites; Roosevelt’s refusal to get behind federal anti-lynching legislation. The Black Cabinet never won official recognition from the president, and with his death, it disappeared from view. But it had changed history. Eventually, one of its members would go on to be the first African American Cabinet secretary; another, the first African American federal judge and mentor to Thurgood Marshall. Masterfully researched and dramatically told, The Black Cabinet brings to life a forgotten generation of leaders who fought post-Reconstruction racial apartheid and whose work served as a bridge that Civil Rights activists traveled to achieve the victories of the 1950s and ’60s. Praise for The Black Cabinet “A dramatic piece of nonfiction that recovers the history of a generation of leaders that helped create the environment for the civil rights battles in decades that followed Roosevelt’s death.” —Library Journal “Fascinating . . . revealing the hidden figures of a ‘brain trust’ that lobbied, hectored and strong-armed President Franklin Roosevelt to cut African Americans in on the New Deal. . . . Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The Black Cabinet is sprawling and epic, and Watts deftly re-creates whole scenes from archival material.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune