Born: July 10, 1875, Mayesville, SC

Education: Scotia Seminary, 1888–95; Moody Bible Institute, 1895

Died: May 18, 1955, Daytona Beach, FL

A child of ex-slaves, Bethune pursued education, studied religion, and became a leader. She founded Bethune-Cookman College (1923), organized the National Council of Negro Women (1935), and directed Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration (1936–43) during the New Deal. When scholars named Black America's fifty most significant leaders in 1989, she was one of four unanimous selections. Bethune worked to bridge race, class, gender, and political divides. “Let us forget the office each one of us holds,” she urged members of the New Deal's black cabinet. “We must think in terms as a ‘whole’ for the greatest service of our people” (McClusky and Smith, 1999, p. 227).

To the black press, Bethune was “race leader at large.” She fought for equal suffrage, economic justice, and international peace. Courageous, she joined the “Jobs for Negroes” picket line of the New Negro Alliance (1939) and the March on Washington Movement (1941). Consequently, the witch-hunting House Committee on Un-American Activities investigated her alleged communist associations, driving some vital donors away from Bethune-Cookman. But she vindicated herself and the institution survived. She attended the first assembly of the United Nations as an advisor to the US delegation, which included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Walter F. White, and W. E. B. Du Bois.