Mary McLeod Bethune was born free in South Carolina in 1875, but for her entire life, she was expected to follow rules like:
She would not be served a meal in the same building where the white population was eating.
She could not share any public space with the white population including buses, train stations, or schools.
She could not marry outside her race.
But Mary would not be discouraged. Once during a visit to a little white girl's home, she picked up a book. The little girl scolded Mary to put the book down because she didn't have any right to be handling a book. Mary became determined to learn to read.
With few educational opportunities available for black children, Mary had to beg her parents to let her attend a school five miles from their home. She flourished and eventually became a teacher.
Wanting to provide better opportunities for other children (including her own) Mary started her own school in Florida. In the beginning, she collected items she needed for the school from the city trash. By 1904, she opened the Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Negro Girls. The school continued to grow and merged into Bethune-Cookman College in 1928.
