page_title: Mary McLeod Bethune
section_title: Legacy and honors
hierarchical_section_title: Mary McLeod Bethune / Legacy and honors
caption_attribution_description: English: Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Washington, DC, United States This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 82005389
context_page_description: Mary Jane McLeod Bethune 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".
context_section_description: In 1930, journalist Ida Tarbell included Bethune as number 10 on her list of America's greatest women. Bethune was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1935 by the NAACP.
  In the 1940s, Bethune used her influence and friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt to secure luxury travel buses for Eddie Durham's All-Star Girls Orchestra, an African-American all women's swing band.
  Bethune was the only black woman present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945, representing the NAACP with W. E. B. Du Bois and Walter White. In 1949 she became the first woman to receive the National Order of Honour and Merit, Haiti's highest award. She served as the US emissary to the induction of President William V.S. Tubman of Liberia in 1949. She also has had essays written about her.
  She also served as an adviser to five of the Presidents of the United States. Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to several government positions, which included: Special Advisor in Minority Affairs, director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, and chair of Federal Council of Negro Affairs. Among her honors, she was an assistant director of the Women's Army Corps. She was also an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
  In 1973, Bethune was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. On July 10, 1974, the anniversary of her 99th birthday, the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial, by artist Robert Berks, was erected in her honor in Lincoln Park (Washington, D.C.) It was the first monument honoring an African American or a woman to be installed in a public park in the District of Columbia. At least 18,000 people attended the unveiling ceremony (although one estimate claims that approximately 250,000 people attended) including Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress. The funds for the monument were raised by the National Council of Negro Women.  The inscription on the pedestal reads "let her works praise her" (a biblical reference to Proverbs 31:31), while the side is engraved with a passage from her "Last Will and Testament":
  I leave you to love. I leave you to 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 your faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you a responsibility to our young people.
  In 1985 the US Postal Service issued a stamp in Bethune's honor.  In 1989 Ebony Magazine listed her as one of "50 Most Important Figures in Black US History." In 1999, Ebony Magazine included her as one of the "100 Most Fascinating Black Women of the 20th century." In 1991, the International Astronomical Union named a crater on planet Venus in her honor.
  In 1994, the National Park Service acquired Bethune's last residence, the NACW Council House at 1318 Vermont Avenue. The former headquarters was designated as the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site.
  Schools have been named in her honor in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, Phoenix, Palm Beach, Florida, Moreno Valley, California, Minneapolis, Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Folkston and College Park, Georgia, New Orleans, Rochester, New York, Cleveland, South Boston, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Mary McLeod Bethune on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
  In 2004, Bethune-Cookman University celebrated its hundredth anniversary from its founding as a primary school. The former 2nd Avenue on one side of the university was renamed Mary Mcleod Bethune Boulevard. The university's website says, "the vision of the founder remains in full view over one-hundred years later. The institution prevails in order that others might improve their heads, hearts, and hands." The university's vice president recalled her legacy: "During Mrs. Bethune's time, this was the only place in the city of Daytona Beach where Whites and Blacks could sit in the same room and
caption: The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site in Washington, D.C.
exif: {}