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Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born on July 10,1875, in Mayesville ,South Carolina.
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Mary married Albertus Bethune in 1889, the couple had one son together before ending their marriage in 1907.
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Mary McLeod Bethune received a scholarship to Scotia Seminary, a school for girls in Concord, North Carolina.
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After Mary graduated from the seminary , she went to Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago .
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Mary founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in Daytona,Florida ,in 1904.
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Mary Bethune served as the school's president,and she remained its leader even after it was combined with the Cookman Institute for Men in 1929.
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Bethune completed her studies 2 years later , returning to the South she began her career as a teacher.
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In 1935, Bethune became a special advisor to President Roosevelt minority affairs. That same year she started the up her own civil rights organization, the National Council of Negro Women.
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In 1936, Mary became the director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the Nation Youth Administration.
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In the early 1950's , President Harry Truman appointed her to a committee on national defense and appointed her to serve as an official delegate to a presidential inauguration in Liberia.
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Mary died on May 18,1955,in Daytona, Florida. She is remembered for her work to advance the rights of both African Americans and women.
