Mary McLeod Bethune: July 10, 1875

Jet, July 10, 1995

Mary McLeod Bethune, educator, administrator, lecturer, and executive, was born on this day near Mayesville, SC. Ms. Bethune came to national attention when President Herbert Hoover invited her to the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection in 1930. Hoover's successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt also asked her to serve on the Advisory Committee of one of the organizations he helped to establish--the National Youth Administration.

Roosevelt was so impressed with Mary McLeod Bethune's performance that he set up an office of Minority Affairs and named her as the administrator. It was the first such post created for a Black woman in the United States.