MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE: A Biography

A properly awe-struck biography is this story of a remarkable woman who fought throughout her rags-to-renown life for the freedom and dignity of the American Negro. Hard work and sturdy independence in spite of poverty and crushing inequalities helped Mary Jane McLeod, born in 1895, to realize her ambition to be educated. A tiny struggling school for Negro girls and her beloved Scotia Seminary opened the vistas and Moody Bible Institute gave her a chance to advance triumphantly on the world with faith and purpose. Once married and after some teaching stints, Mary McLeod Bethune was consumed with the desire to minister to the needs of underprivileged Negro children everywhere, and in Daytona Beach, Florida, she rented a site for eleven dollars a month which was to become the home of Bethune-Cookman College. Her missionary zeal burned high throughout her life -- as in the early days she bioyoled about asking for help for her school; as she firmly pointed out to the wealthy and famous the needs of her people; as she entered the national scene and served in many capacities under Roosevelt, ""someone who understood""; as she explored every aspect of American life which did not measure up to the American ideal of freedom. A strenuous, tough-minded, personality who is treated in too gingerly a fashion here.