Some of the greatest stories in history begin with almost nothing. For Mary McLeod Bethune, it was a rented house, a handful of students, and, as it is often told, just $1.50.
From that small beginning grew a college that still teaches students today. Her life is a beautiful picture of what one faithful, determined person can build when she refuses to let the storm have the last word.
A Daughter of a Cotton Farm
Mary Jane McLeod was born on July 10, 1875, near Mayesville, South Carolina. She was the 15th of 17 children. Her parents, Samuel and Patsy McLeod, had been enslaved. After the Civil War, they bought a small farm and raised their family on it.
Mary was born free, but life was hard. She worked in the fields with her family. According to PBS’s American Experience, by age nine she could pick 250 pounds of cotton a day.
One childhood moment stayed with her. She sometimes went with her mother to deliver laundry to white families. Once, when she picked up a book in a white family’s nursery, a child grabbed it and told her, “Put that down. You can’t read!”
That sting did not crush her. It lit a fire. Mary came to believe that learning to read and write could open doors that had been shut to her people.
The Long Walk to School
When a missionary opened a school nearby, the McLeod family could afford to send only one child. Mary was chosen. She walked about five miles each way and did her homework by candlelight.
She went on to Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina, and then studied at the Bible Institute in Chicago (now the Moody Bible Institute). In 1898 she married Albertus Bethune, and their son, Albert, was born the next year.
A School Built on Sweet Potato Pies
In October 1904, Mary opened a school in Daytona Beach, Florida. The National Park Service says it began in a rented house with six students: five girls and her own young son.
Britannica notes she started with “virtually no tangible assets.” The United Methodist Church tells how she raised money by baking and selling sweet potato pies, and that she began with five students and $1.50.
She kept going. The school grew quickly. In 1923 it merged with the Cookman Institute for Men, and a few years later it took the name Bethune-Cookman College. Under her leadership, it earned full accreditation and grew to more than 1,000 students. Today it is Bethune-Cookman University.
“For who hath despised the day of small things?”
Zechariah 4:10 (KJV)
A Voice in the Nation’s Capital
Mary’s influence reached far beyond Florida. In 1935 she founded the National Council of Negro Women, bringing together leaders from many women’s groups. She led it until 1949.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to the National Youth Administration, and in 1939 she became director of its Division of Negro Affairs. She also organized a group of advisers that became known as the “Black Cabinet.” Later, she served as a vice president of the NAACP.
She was, in the words of the United Methodist Church, “a devoted Methodist.” Her faith and her work were never far apart.
“I Leave You Hope”
Mary McLeod Bethune died at her home in Daytona Beach on May 18, 1955, at age 79. She was buried on the campus of the college she had built.
Near the end of her life she wrote what she called her “Last Will and Testament,” a letter to the generations after her. Among its lines: “I leave you hope.” “I leave you a thirst for education.” “I leave you faith.”
In July 2022, a marble statue of Mary was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall. NPR reported that she became the first Black person honored there with a state-commissioned statue. It is inscribed with one of her favorite sayings: “invest in the human soul. Who knows? It might be a diamond in the rough.”
What Her Life Teaches Our Families
- Small starts still count. A rented house and five students became a university.
- Hurtful words do not get to define us. “You can’t read!” became the reason she taught thousands.
- Sacrifice opens doors for others. One child was sent to school, and that child opened the door for countless more.
- Faith and hard work belong together. She prayed, and she also baked the pies.
Whatever storm your family is facing, remember Mary standing in that little rented house with a few eager girls. God can do great things with small beginnings. Through every storm, we rise together.
What “small beginning” in your own life has God grown into something bigger than you imagined?
Sources: National Park Service, “Mary McLeod Bethune”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Mary McLeod Bethune”; PBS American Experience, “Eleanor and Mary McLeod Bethune”; United Methodist Church, “Methodist Women’s History: Mary McLeod Bethune”; NPR, “A statue honoring Mary McLeod Bethune is unveiled at the U.S. Capitol” (Jul 14, 2022); KJV Zechariah 4:10
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