Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (born Mary Jane McLeod) was an American educator, stateswoman, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council for Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal Aframerican Women's Journal, and resided as president or leader for myriad African American women's organizations including the National Association for Colored Women and the National Youth Administration's Negro Division. She also was appointed as a national adviser to president Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom she worked with to create the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, also known as the Black Cabinet. She is well known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida; it later continued to develop as Bethune-Cookman University. Bethune was the sole African American woman officially a part of the US delegation that created the United Nations charter, and she held a leadership position for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. For her lifetime of activism, she was deemed "acknowledged First Lady of Negro America" by Ebony magazine in July 1949 and was known by the Black Press as the "Female Booker T. Washington".[ She was known as "The First Lady of The Struggle" because of her commitment to gain better lives for African Americans.
“Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.”
“The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.”
“I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you finally, a responsibility to our young people.”
“Forgiving is not about forgetting, it's letting go of the hurt”
“Cease to be a drudge. Seek to be an artist.”
“The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.”
“Without faith nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”
“For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.”
“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.”