1. An Iron Fist and A Velvet Glove:
Mary McLeod Bethune and Her Commitment to Black Education
Tionna C. Haynes ‘15
“The Heart, Head, and Hand”
The Road to
Bethune-Cookman University
Bethune established the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training Institute
1923 – Merger with Cookman Institute to make a coeducational high school
Bethune-Cookman became a two-year college
1941 – Bethune-Cookman became a four-year college
2007 – Bethune Cookman became a university with its addition of a Master’s degree program
The Female
Booker T. Washington
Mary McLeod Bethune ( )
Bethune learned about the “heart, head, and hand” educational philosophy as a student at the Scotia Academy in North Carolina.
This philosophy developed young girls’ knowledge of religion, intellectual, and practical learning:
The Holy Bible
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
Domestic Science
This kind of education would prepare young Southern black girls for the world.
First President of Bethune-Cookman
President of the State Federation of colored Women’s Clubs
President of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs
Created the National Council of Negro Women
Was an advisor on minority affair in the Roosevelt Administration
Appointed to the Hoover Administration’s National Commission on Child Welfare and the Commission on Home Building and Home Ownership
“Mary McLeod Bethune’s vision lives on today at the school that she founded which continues to sustain her legacy of faith, scholarship, and service”’
~ The Bethune-Cookman University website
Just like Booker T. Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune was committed to educating black people to make them employable in their society.