As Women’s History Month comes to a close this week, I want to share the story of two women who have led amazing lives.
I often say that I am living my mother’s American Dream. My mother, Frances Scott, raised both my brother and me by herself while working 16 hour days as a Certified Nursing Assistant. Women like her inspire so many across our nation — they are not afraid to do what needs to be done in order to create a better future for those around them, even if it results in little gain for themselves. There are many women in our country who deserve praise and recognition, like my mother, who will never be nationally known. I would like to thank my mother and the women who continue to make a difference behind closed doors.
I would also like to celebrate another great woman in South Carolina history: Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune was born July 10, 1875, the fifteenth of seventeen children, near Mayesville, SC on a rice and cotton farm. Her father and mother, both born into slavery, stressed the importance of education and sent Bethune to a school opened by the Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church when she was eleven years old. A few years later, Bethune was given the opportunity to further her education when she was selected by her teacher to attend the Scotia Seminary in North Carolina.
Bethune chose the path of becoming a missionary and had dreams of going to Africa. After completing a two year missionary program, she was told that there were not any openings for African-American missionaries in Africa and she was forced to return to Mayesville and teach at the mission school that she once attended. Bethune taught there for a year and eventually petitioned the Presbyterian Board of Education to move her elsewhere. She accepted a job as a teacher in Augusta, GA and worked there one year before she was sent to Sumter, SC, where she worked for two years.
During this time, Bethune began to dream about building a school that provided opportunities for African-American girls. In 1904, she opened the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School in Florida with only 5 students whose tuition was 5 cents a week. This program was very much geared towards the times and taught girls how to manage a home. The school quickly gained the support of the community and in just three years, it grew to become a 32 acre campus with fourteen buildings and 400 students. In 1923, the school merged with the Cookman Institute of Jacksonville, Fl. and it became Bethune-Cookman College. Today, the school is known as Bethune-Cookman University.
This is only a glimpse of Mary McLeod Bethune’s accomplishments. Her efforts helped to improve the lives of many and for that I am grateful.
I salute my mother, Mary McLeod Bethune, and so many others amazing women this month. Thank you for everything you have done for our nation.
