Mary Mcleod Bethune: Words of Wisdom

By AuthorHouse

Mary McLeod Bethune was a great educator, advisor to U.S. presidents, leader of the Black Cabinet, founder of Bethune Cookman University, and National Council of Negro Women. Some of the great legacies of Mary McLeod Bethune are left in her abundant records from decades of dedicated service to the public.

The book is designed to recapture some of those words of wisdom which speak to the present generation. She was one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. Her words can be very strengthening and stimulating. Mary McLeod Bethune had one of the most dramatic careers ever played at any time on the stage of human endeavors. She was a great woman of vision, courage, perseverance, and endurance.

Indeed, many people still look up to her as an inspiration to all human beings regardless of political, cultural, ethnic background. Her faith in God was remarkable, and her philosophy of living and serving transcended nationality, gender, and race. She was an educator who shared her passion for education with the world. There is a certain amount of inspiration in this book that can motivate all readers to new and greater heights.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 14, 2008
• ISBN: 9781467830393

Book preview

FORWARD

Mary McLeod Bethune: Words of Wisdom is interesting and a remarkable book. It is a collection of words of wisdom of our esteemed founder, Mary McLeod Bethune. The compilation of the selected writings, speeches, prayers, private thoughts, diary, and philosophy of Mary McLeod Bethune is outstanding. She was an inspirational leader who inspired many to great heights. Some of the greatest legacies left to us by Mary McLeod Bethune can be found in her great words of wisdom.

As one of the most influential people of the twentieth century, Mary McLeod Bethune indeed, left the world an abundance of records during her several decades of serving the people. Mrs. Bethune was the first woman to establish an accredited four year college; founder of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW); director of the federal National Youth Administration (NYA) and the leader of the Black Cabinet. She was advisor to U.S. presidents. She held many offices in many national and international organizations. She was among the U.S. delegates who represented the United States during the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco.

Many people are still looking up to Mary McLeod Bethune. She inspired all human beings regardless of race or gender, and her achievements transcended political, cultural, ethnic, and gender barriers. She showed the world the importance of education for all. She lived and practiced the four cardinal principles of—absolute love, absolute unselfishness, absolute honesty, and absolute purity.

The book recaptures some of her basic philosophy. It presents some of those words which inspired her to dedicate her life and service in the face of several obstacles to education, religion, human rights, civil rights, and global peace. The author dedicated this book to youths to depict Bethune’s legacy to young people of the world. This is an easy to read book, and it is for everyone.

Trudie Kibbe Reed, President

Bethune Cookman University

Daytona Beach, Florida

YOUTHS AND EDUCATION

Let the School Bells Ring

In a Democracy young people should give more time to the choice of a vocation and a study of the great social and economic changes which are taking place before their very eyes. More attention should be given to the old adage of Know thyself; what are your aptitudes, interests and specific abilities and how do these relate to the law of supply and demand in my chosen field of work?

Why did I go to school?

As August begins to fade out of the picture and September creeps up on the horizon, the ringing of school bells begins to haunt the ears of yearning school children, teachers and parents. Once a teacher, always a teacher. The newspapers are beginning to carry their school advertisements and large department stores are having fashion shows depicting what the college girl will wear. We often overlook the real thing in life and choose the shadow. I am particularly interested in knowing whether young people realize the why of education and the fundamental objectives and reasons why we have schools.

In a Democracy young people should give more time to the choice of a vocation and a study of the great social and economic changes which are taking place before their very eyes. More attention should be given to the old adage of Know thyself; what are your aptitudes, interests and specific abilities and how do these relate to the law of supply and demand in my chosen field of work? Why did I go to school? Youth must ever keep before them a reason for doing things which places the ideal on the mountain top where the air is pure and clean, but comes down into the valley to work with men. Keep your feet on the ground.

These are golden days and my daily touch with Youth makes my later years grow lighter because I have faith in Negro youth. These are challenging times, depressions, recessions, fascism, communism, Nazism, and a host of threats of democracy. They should fill our blood streams with added men of war to defend our democratic ideals.

Bells, those school bells haunt me as I greet Negro youth, answering the call of back to school. I am happy to salute you for I know you will keep the faith of the fathers and return to school days with new energies, to answer the why do I go to school, with a determined effort to fit your lives to the world in which you live for service and advancing human cause; to bring the ideal and the practical nearer together and to do in social action what has been done in science, the ultimate goal, the conservation of human resources and the reality of the democratic concept as a way of life.

Let the school bells ring!

Mrs. Bethune Speaks on Greenville Program

To you many folks here, this is your hour, day and place; - don’t forget it is Your Day. It is a day to think – think together, not for yourselves, but for others.

"I can with an imaginary eye see the little house in Sumter County, with the little Mary McLeod sitting on the doorsteps waiting for her mother’s return from work. I can see Mary McLeod wending her way over a distance of 10 miles with one or two books under her arm seeking knowledge. I can see the many rough obstacles, hard struggles overcome to obtain this knowledge. I can appreciate the task assigned to me now to help make it a little easier the path. Whose turn is it now to see knowledge? The Negro Youth.

We who are parents, want our children to trod pleasanter paths of life in the way of seeking knowledge; and through the N.Y.A. we have been able to do so. But we must get up out of ourselves; get up out of the slums of dependency, and rise to the platform of Hope and Service. To you many folks here, this is your hour, day and place; - don’t forget it is Your Day. It is a day to think – think together, not for yourselves, but for others. The Negroes have had others to think for them, now is the time not to think for the sake of the individual, but for the sake of the group."

Right now we need more representation. Cast your vote, for that man who will represent you in your hour of need. Cast your vote, which is the right of every American-born citizen. Take your place at the polls, if you have your lunch of milk and bread brought to you while you wait.

Youth is on the March:

Let No One Stand in the Way!

Some incident in this or another country may disappoint us, but we must permit nothing to discourage us. Youth is often impetuous, often unwise, and often wrong. But youth has stamina and courage and perseverance. The strengthening of the basic philosophy of our marching youth – directing them to the tasks which they can best perform, is our responsibility today.

These are wonderful days! Youth – the young in age and spirit—are on the march, storming the citadels of education for all manner of training and skills—more determined than ever before to acquire that measure of competence, that basis for leadership, which they know they must have, to help mold their future.

With the slump in labor, the unrest among educators, the grimness in international relations casting their shadows over the land, how encouraging it is to find such unmistakable signs that the seeds of progress and unity, sown through the years, are germinating. How encouraging to find youth probing, searching, stretching out hands, for a closer, basic understanding between man and man, between youth and age, between many peoples in many nations, in spite of grimness among governments.

Some incident in this or another country may disappoint us, but we must permit nothing to discourage us. Youth is often impetuous, often unwise, and often wrong. But youth has stamina and courage and perseverance. The strengthening of the basic philosophy of our marching youth – directing them to the tasks which they can best perform, is our responsibility today.

For these are tomorrow’s leaders. These are the men and the women who will carry the torch of progress further that we, whose march is nearly ended, have ever been able to do.

We rejoice in the growth of the free press that serves us all – that serves these marching youth—. We rejoice in the interpretation of significant events in this world of ours – at home and abroad. In spite of its blunders, of its errors of human judgment, we must protect its freedom to speak out—to the people and for the people.

We must watch that youth on the march may grow more dependable, more lovable, and more fraternal, than we have ever grown. We must watch lest they lose their bearings in the storms of hate and malice and segregation and discrimination.

These are the days for us to re-gear ourselves to the task – for standing up and being counted, wherever youth is being served.

I have been greatly disturbed and disappointed—but not discouraged – by the situations centering around the presidents of many of our large, state-supported colleges in the Southland, for these colleges – all colleges are the great pumps that force the life-blood of new ideas, new processes of thought and action – new leadership –through the veins of the nation. We must realize as never before, the importance of building leaders—and supporting them. There is no place for obstructionists of any color.

Youth is thinking. Youth is speaking. Youth is marching on to a New Day. The young in age are joining hands with the young in outlook and in spirit, to hasten that Day. Let no one stand in their way!

The Educational Values of the College-Bred

Why this large investment in education? Why do we educate people, anyhow? Why do we spend these huge sums? Obviously it is just this: Nature has stored up in individuals native powers, possibilities, potentialities, and it is the problem, the work of education to release these powers – to make actual and real these possibilities and potentialities in order that the individual himself may live life to the fullest and make a contribution to the sum of total happiness.

Mr. Chairman:

May I express my gratitude to your committee for your gracious invitation to be present with you on this historic day and to participate in the parting greetings to this remarkable class that must soon find its way into the world of service?

One’s heart is moved with emotions as we look backward and think of the seed-sowers of this grand old Institution, and of thousands who have arisen from the lowly fields of ignorance and poverty to the great fields of knowledge ripened with opportunities to serve. We think today in terms of deep appreciation and affection of those who have been faithfully carrying on during all of the long, long years, enduring hardness, very often, like good soldiers. We congratulate you upon the standard of this Institution, for what it means to a race and to a nation. Its influences are seeping through to all races and classes with its fine, new-day program of education.

Education is the great American adventure, the world’s most colossal democratic experiment. Education is the largest public enterprise in the United States; in my opinion, the country’s most important business. This is emphasized when I remind you that, according to Edgar Knight of the University of North Carolina, the public school property of this country amounts to seven billion dollars, that three billion dollars are spent annually for school support; than one million two hundreds thousand teachers are employed; and that there are thirty million students enrolled in our various types of institutions; that two persons out of every seven in the United States are giving full time to this education.

Why this large investment in education? Why do we educate people, anyhow? Why do we spend these huge sums? Obviously it is just this: Nature has stored up in individuals native powers, possibilities, potentialities, and it is the problem, the work of education to release these powers – to make actual and real these possibilities and potentialities in order that the individual himself may live life to the fullest and make a contribution to the sum of total happiness.

In my mind there are three factors that have contributed to make education the great enterprise it is today.

The first is science with its powers of production, distribution, transportation and communication. The second is the ideal of democracy. In former years education was a luxury to be enjoyed by the members of higher castes; now it is within the reach of the masses. The third is religion. All science points toward God – God the maker, the preserver, the director of all of our lives. As you grow in the knowledge of science, young people, strive to grow more like God. Amid collapse and crumbling of economic and social structures, religion is the vitalizing element in all education.

I believe as does Glenn Frank, President of the University of Wisconsin,