In 1923, at Delta Sigma Theta’s fifth national convention, Mary McLeod Bethune, a prominent educator, became an Honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.
The daughter of former slaves, Bethune worked in the fields at age five. Due to the generosity of a benefactor, she graduated from Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College). Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida can trace its history to 1904, when Bethune opened a school for African-American girls. There were five girls in the first class.
Mary McLeod Bethune and some of her students during the early years of her school. Photo courtesy of Bethune-Cookman University.
In 1923, the school merged with the Cookman Institute of Jacksonville, Florida to become a high school. In 1931, it became a junior college. Ten years later Bethune-Cookman became a four-year college. Bethune served as the college president from 1923-42 and 1946-47.
She was also a leader in the National Association of Colored Women and served as its national president. In addition, she founded the National Council of Negro Women and served as a Cabinet member in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration. Her push to upgrade the libraries at historically black institutions during her tenure as Director of the Negro Division of the National Youth Administration, and her firm belief that these libraries needed to be improved, played a part in Delta’s first national project.
On December 8, 1938, Bethune spoke in Massachusetts to a group of Alpha Kappa Alpha members at Boston’s Twelfth Baptist Church. Even though she was battling a cold, she kept the engagement and urged that “Minority groups should stick together or they’ll never get anywhere.”
On Sunday, January 24, 1954, the Gamma Zeta Sigma and Delta Alpha Chapters gathered at the Bethune-Cookman Auditorium in Daytona Beach, Florida, and had a Founders’ Day celebration. Mary McLeod Bethune introduced the speaker, Toki Schalk Johnson, women’s editor of the Pittsburgh Courier. Her talk was titled, “What Is the Fashion Today – Preparedness.”
Mary McLeod Bethune is to the right, seated on the right, at the 1954 Delta Sigma Theta Founders’ Day.
In an article in Ebony written shortly before her death when she knew her time was coming to a close, she “distilled principles and policies in which I believe firmly, for they represent the meaning of my life’s work.” Her legacy were these points, and in the article she added explanations:
I leave you love
I leave you hope
I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another
I leave you a thirst for education
I leave you a respect for the uses of power
I leave you faith
I leave you racial dignity
I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men
I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people
She then added, “Faith, courage, brotherhood, dignity, ambition, responsibility – these are needed today as never before.”
Bethune died on May 18, 1955 at the age of 78. In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame posthumously.
