The Life of Mary McLeod Bethune.
While looking through several books, trying to find a great educator for the African American community besides Charlotte Hawkins Brown. I came to the conclusion of Mary McLeod Bethune. I thought that I should be the one to analyze such a great educator and leader, and find what she did for the African Americans as far as education was concerned and how she established her own school. It is important for me, as an African American, to learn more about other African American educators that made a difference for education and to also be a native to North Carolina's neighboring state of South Carolina.
July 10, 1875 in Maysville, South Carolina, Samuel and Pasty McLeod had a new addition to their family, a baby girl "born to former slaves a decade after the end of the Civil War" (Mary 1). The proud parents of the baby girl decided to name her Mary Jane McLeod. Mary was born "on a rice and cotton farm and was the fifteenth of seventeen children, some of whom had been sold into enslavement" (Botsch 1). Mary was the type of child that took opportunities when they became available to her. At a young age, Mary realized the importance of education, regardless what people said about education for African Americans. "When Mary was a child, many people thought that education was a waste of time for black children, [b]ut Mary wanted to go to school and her parents supported her" (qtd. in Hudson and Wesley 5). Her parents were not strong believers in education but they wanted what was best for their children. .
Moreover, when Mary was eleven years of age, a school opened its doors for the African American children to attend. "The Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church opened a school for African American children" (Botsch 1). Most of Mary's siblings had to be forced to attend school, but Mary had made up her mind that education was the key to helping African Americans improve their lives.