Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, (July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) in Mayesville, South Carolina, Mary McLeod Bethune was a child of former slaves; she began her life picking cotton. A scholarship to Scotia Seminary in North Carolina in 1888 launched her career as educator and activist. Believing that education provided the key to racial advancement, she founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute, which later became Bethune-Cookman University. A national figure, she served in the Roosevelt administration as adviser to the president on minority affairs and director of the Division of Negro Affairs within the National Youth Administration (1936–44).

Source: biography | vivacitynow