When I first landed an internship as an archives technician at the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House-National Historic Site – the D.C. home of the woman who founded Bethune-Cookman University – I didn’t see a strong connection between the college founder’s life and the rest of the African diaspora.
Many of the requests I got from researchers were for records of Bethune’s work within what is known as FDR’s “Black Cabinet,” an unofficial Black advisory group that helped raise awareness of issues affecting Black America. Or her role as the founder of the National Council of Negro Women. Or her overall involvement in Washington, D.C., as a resident of Logan Circle, where she welcomed people from around the world to the NCNW headquarters.
But in the process of preserving the records and retrieving them for scholars, I soon came to see Bethune in a different light.
By reading her letters, diary entries and notes from various meetings, I noticed that Bethune was awarded honors in Haiti and Liberia. I decided to take a closer look at her work abroad for my dissertation, and I found that she was more connected to the diaspora than I and many others had thought.
That experience ultimately laid the foundation for my 2023 book, “Mary McLeod Bethune The Pan-Africanist.”
Pan-Africanism, according to Nigerian historian P. Olisanwuche Esedebe, is a “political and cultural phenomenon which regards Africa, Africans and African descendants abroad as a unit.”
“It seeks to regenerate and unify Africa and promote a feeling of oneness among the people of the African world,” Esedebe wrote. “It glorifies the African past and inculcates pride in African values.”
Bethune embodied ideals of Pan-Africanism throughout the course of her life.
A global view
This much is evident from a 1926 speech she gave as president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs at the organization’s annual convention. In that speech, she challenged Black women to unify with people of African descent throughout the world.
Specifically, she stated:
We must make this national body of colored women not merely a national influence, but a significant link between peoples of color throughout the world._
African identity
Bethune’s story begins in Mayesville, South Carolina, where she was born to formerly enslaved parents.
She was taught by her family that her roots were in Africa. Throughout her life she spoke about how her mother descended from a royal matriarchy.
She lived in South Carolina until she went to Scotia Seminary – now known as Barber-Scotia College – and graduated in 1893. Thereafter she attended Moody Bible Institute and graduated in 1895. Her training prepared her to become a missionary.
Mary McLeod Bethune rose to become one of the most influential Black women of the 20th century. In 1904, she founded a small school for girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. That school later became Bethune-Cookman University.
While living in Washington, D.C., where she moved to work with the Roosevelt administration and National Council of Negro Women, she worked alongside Carter G. Woodson, the founder of what we now know to be 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 Women, an “organization of organizations” to unify African American women’s organizations under one major umbrella.
The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House-National Historic Site was the first headquarters of the organization. It was purchased by the National Park Service in 1994.
The ‘First Lady of Negro America’
As I pored through the archives, I learned about Bethune’s role as the first African American woman to head a federal agency, which she did as director of the Division of Negro Affairs with the National Youth Administration. I learned how she was able to secure jobs and critical educational funding for African Americans during the Great Depression.
She also worked closely with Eleanor Roosevelt to fight for the inclusion of African American women during World War II.