When I first got an internship as an archive technician on the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House – National Historic Site — the D.C. home of the lady who founded Bethune-Cookman University — I didn’t see a robust connection between the faculty founder’s life and the remainder of the African diaspora.
Many of the requests I received from researchers were for records of Bethune's work in FDR's so-called “Black Cabinet.” unofficial black advisory group This has helped raise awareness of issues affecting Black America. Or her role as Founder of the National Council of Negro Women. Or her general involvement in Washington, DC as a resident of Logan Circle, where she welcomed people from world wide to the NCNW headquarters.
But as I preserved the notes and retrieved them for researchers, I soon learned to see Bethune in a unique light.
As I read her letters, diary entries, and notes from various meetings, I noticed that Bethune received awards in Haiti and Liberia. I made a decision to take a better take a look at her work abroad for my dissertation and located that she was more connected to the diaspora than I and plenty of others had thought.
This experience ultimately laid the muse for my book, which was published in 2023: “Mary McLeod Bethune The Pan-Africanist.”
Pan-Africanism, based on Nigerian historian P. Olisanwuche Esedebeis a “political and cultural phenomenon that views Africa, Africans and African descendants abroad as a single entity.”
“It aims to regenerate and unite Africa and promote a sense of unity among the people of the African world,” Esedebe wrote. “It glorifies the African past and inspires pride in African values.”
Bethune embodied the ideals of Pan-Africanism throughout her life.
A worldwide view
This is clear from a speech she gave as president of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in 1926 on the organization's annual meeting. In this speech, she challenged black women to unite with people of African descent world wide.
Specifically, she stated:
We must make this national association of coloured women not only a national influence, but a major link between peoples of color world wide._
African identity
Bethune's story begins in Mayesville, South Carolinawhere she was born to formerly enslaved parents.
Her family taught her that her roots were in Africa. All her life she talked about how her mother was descended from one royal matriarchy.
She lived in South Carolina until she attended Scotia Seminary – now often called Barber-Scotia College – and graduated in 1893. She then attended the Moody Bible Institute and graduated in 1895. your education she prepared to change into a missionary.
Mary McLeod Bethune rose to change into one of the influential black women of the twentieth century. In 1904 she founded a small girls' school in Daytona Beach, Florida. This school became later Bethune Cookman University.
She worked with them while in Washington, D.C., where she moved to work for the Roosevelt administration and the National Council of Negro Women Carter G. Woodsonthe founding father of the so-called Black History Month, during her time as president of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
In 1935 Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Womenan “organization of organizations” to unite African American women’s organizations under one large umbrella.
The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House-National Historic Site was the organization's first headquarters. It was bought by the National Park Service in 1994.
The “First Lady of Negro America”
As I dug into the archives, I learned of Bethune's role as the primary African-American woman to move a federal agency, which she did Director of the Department of Negro Affairs with the state youth administration. I learned the way to secure herself Jobs and important education funding for African Americans in the course of the Great Depression.
She also worked closely with Eleanor Roosevelt to fight for it Inclusion of African American Women During World War II.
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It quickly became clear why Ebony Magazine declared her “First Lady of Negro America” in 1949.
Haiti's highest honor
When she traveled to Haiti in 1949 – where she was awarded it Haitian Medal of Honor and MeritHaiti's highest honor on the time – she visited orphanages, churches and historical sites to know the needs of the people and the richness of the culture.
Bethune often proudly wore her Haitian medal. She wrote about her travels in The Chicago Defender, a national black newspaper.
She called for support for Haitian women's suffrage. She also called on members of the National Council of Negro Women to achieve this help construct orphanages within the country and actively collected money for it.
As I researched further into the archives, I discovered that Bethune had worked for much of her life to create solidarity between people of African descent. She traveled to places—including Cuba in 1930, Bermuda in 1931, Canada in 1945 and 1954, and the Bahamas in 1953—and forged relationships throughout the African diaspora.
As a daughter of Africa
In her writings, Bethune referred to Africa as her home. She saw herself as a daughter of the continent. Be it on the founding of the United Nations in 1945, where it called for an end colonizationor within the White House, where she campaigned for the abolition of poll taxes for African Americans, the goal of freedom was at all times on the forefront of her mind.
In 1952 she received the Star of Africa during their trip to Liberia. Created in 1920, the star was certainly one of Liberia's highest honors and was given to individuals who had made outstanding contributions to the country or Africa as a complete. It was an important honor and one she didn’t take flippantly. During the trip, she met women's groups and visited local schools. She also attended the inauguration ceremony of President William VS Tubman.
The trip was particularly meaningful for Bethune, especially since she had attempted to travel to Africa as a missionary on the age of 20 and was told by the missionary society that she couldn’t achieve this because she was black.
At the age of 76, her dream finally got here true. In her review of the trip, she said specified: “I was thrilled to set foot on this African soil that I had dreamed of for so long – of returning to my homeland.”
Bethune's understanding of her personal connection to the continent and its people inspired her to challenge others to do the identical. Although she was recognized because the “First Lady of Negro America,” perhaps it’s time to also recognize her because the “First Lady of the African Diaspora.”
image credit : theconversation.com