Mary McLeod Bethune
1875-1955 20th century
Bequeathing what one did not receive, so that others may have it.
Who was Mary McLeod Bethune?
The fifteenth child of former slaves in South Carolina, she was the first in her family to go to school. In 1904 she opened a school for Black girls in Florida with a dollar and a half and five pupils; it became a university. An adviser to presidents, she spent her life demanding for others what had almost been refused to her. She wrote her will to address a whole generation.
In their own words
I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the uses of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow man. I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people.
Love, not hate, has been the fountain of my fulfilment.
Faith ought not to be a puny thing.