Mary Mcleod Bethune: Matriarch of Black America

By Dr. Earl Devine Martin

Mary McLeod Bethune, distinguished educator, humanitarian and churchwoman, was a living legend. Born the fifteenth child of freed slaves in Mayesville, South Carolina, she grew up to be an advisor to four presidents of the United States and Founder of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration under Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was the founder of the National Council of Negro Women which spearheaded the drive for the Memorial as authorized by the 86th through the 92nd Congress and the President of the United States.

The Memorial is the first to a black American or a woman to be erected in a public park in our nation's capital.

Mrs. Bethune left the nation one of its richest legacies. Just prior to her death in 1955 she wrote, in part, her Last Will and Testament....

"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 Use of Power...I Leave
You Faith...I Leave You Racial Dignity...
I Leave You a Desire to Live Harmoniously
With Your Fellow Man...I Leave You,
Finally, a Responsibility to our Young People."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 8, 2004
• ISBN: 9781465332752

Dr. Earl Devine Martin

Dr. Martin, a twin, was born September 21, 1926 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He attended Lynchburg schools, graduating from E. C. Class High School in 1943 where he was elected to membership in The National Honor Society, Quill and Scroll Writers Club, and served as Business Manager of the school newspaper, the High Times. He was graduated from Lynchburg College in 1952 with a major in Religion and Philosophy. He attended Garrett- Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois where he was awarded a Master of Divinity in 1955. He received a M.A. degree from Northwestern University in 1958 in the field of Sociology of Religion. His thesis was entitled “Mary McLeod Bethune, A Prototype of the Rising Social Consciousness of The American Negro.” He received a Ph.D in Sociology from Walden University in 1977, having written a dissertation entitled, “Extended Family Substitutes Utilized By The Isolated Nuclear Family Having Teenage Members.” He is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, a member of the Virginia Annual Conference, having served pastorates in Illinois, Virginia, and North Carolina. While in North Carolina, he also served as an associate professor of Sociology and headed the Social Science Department at Methodist College in Fayetteville. Before going to Fayetteville he also served as a high school English teacher. He and the former Margaret Gatewood Adams have been married for more than fifty years and have three children, Kathryn M. Crone, and husband Donald Wayne, Earl Scott Martin, and John Adams Martin. They also have one grandchild, Kelly Martin Crone. The Crones reside in Lynchburg, Virginia. Scott and John live in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Since retiring, he has served as interim pastor of several churches in the Lynchburg area and is currently an active member of Heritage United Methodist Church where he and Margaret jointly head the Senior Ministries. He is a student of Disciples Bible Study and helped found the Lynchburg/Central Virginia Emmaus Community where he and Margaret continue active. He continues to preach on occasion.

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Copyright © 2004 by Dr. Earl Devine Martin.

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24448

Contents

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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To Margaret Gatewood Adams,

my beloved friend and mate for more than fifty years,

who has offered me so much encouragement in so many ways. Especially was she the inspiration for my MA thesis,

which I wrote while at Northwestern University.

CHAPTER I

SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY

OF THE STUDY

Early in 1956 the writer, as the pastor of two Methodist churches in Virginia, was in search of a sermon theme for the observance of Race Relations Sunday. After considerable deliberation, he came upon an article appearing in the CHRISTIAN CENTURY (February 1, 1956). It was entitled, The Miracle Years of Mrs. Bethune. The writer, R. L. Sloan, a Sunday School superintendent of Daytona Beach, Florida, had interviewed Mrs. Bethune several days before her death and had recorded the conference for the CHRISTIAN CENTURY.

Before reading this article, he was hardly familiar with the name, Bethune. It was one which he had seen numerous times when, as a youth, he had walked past the Bethune Nursery School in Lynchburg, Virginia. But he knew nothing concerning its origin.

As he read the account of Mr. Sloan’s interview, he was so deeply impressed that he wondered if he could, in some manner, relate its message to his forthcoming Race Relations sermon. In the interview, Mrs. Bethune had intimated that she was certain that better racial understanding would occur if white Christians took time to read and learn more about their Negro neighbors. This suggestion convinced the writer that he should prepare a sermon, centering on the life of this distinguished Negro leader, Mary McLeod Bethune.

At the library of a neighboring college, he was immediately intrigued with the information which he was able to uncover concerning Mrs. Bethune. The daughter of former slaves, she was born in a log cabin in South Carolina, just as the period of Reconstruction was coming to a close. Deeply religious, she had received an education under the auspices of Northern church leaders. As a young woman she had founded a college which would eventually become one of the leading colleges for Negro youth in America. In time, she had become a recognized national leader of her people, an educator in her own right, and an adviser and confidant of presidents.

On Race Relations Sunday, February 19, 1956, the writer presented his findings to the members of the two congregations. Their response was favorable and proved immensely gratifying.

Later, when the writer placed the sermon material in his file, he was quite unaware that in less than two years he would be retrieving it, not for sermon purposes, but in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master’s program.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study centers primarily on the leadership role of Mary McLeod Bethune. It is the writer’s conviction that she was a forerunner—a prototype—of the kind of militant Negro leadership which we are currently witnessing in America. She represents a bridge between the leadership of the Booker T. Washington era and the present. She is a representative of the talented tenth around whom a storm of controversy arose at the turn of the century.¹

This study will attempt to illustrate the emergence of Mrs. Bethune as a prototype leader. Her life and times will be reviewed, as well as the extent of her social consciousness and message. Attention will also be given to the impressions of contemporary Negro and white leaders of her leadership role. And finally, an interpretation of Mary McLeod Bethune as a leading contributor to present-day Negro leadership, will be offered.

THE METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The interview, questionnaire and historical methods of research were employed in this study. Ten persons were interviewed and one hundred seven others received questionnaires. And the facilities of Deering and Garrett libraries on the Northwestern University campus, the George C. Hall Branch and the Johnson Publishing Company libraries in Chicago, were used by the writer in gathering historical data related to Mrs. Bethune.

Names of persons interviewed and many of those to whom questionnaires were mailed, were secured from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People offices in New York and in Chicago. Some names were also obtained from Negro and white leaders who had known Mrs. Bethune. At least forty-four names were selected from the volume, WHO’S WHO IN COLORED AMERICA, 1947. The writer also sent letters of inquiry to prominent persons such as Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Ralph Sockman who were known to have been personally acquainted with Mrs. Bethune. Professor Albert M. Bethune, Mrs. Bethune’s son, was also included in the list of correspondents, but failed to reply to any of the writer’s several communications.

INTERVIEW

A statistical analysis of the ten persons interviewed is illustrated in the table below.

Table A

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Eight of the above-listed interviews were conducted by the writer. The remaining two were undertaken at his request and on the basis of questions he proposed. One was conducted by Miss Anne Holliday, Executive Secretary, Phyllis Wheatley Branch, Young Women’s Christian Association, Lynchburg, Virginia, and the other was performed by Dr. Howard Powell, minister, Edenton Street Methodist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina. Both focused and impressionistic types of interviewing were employed in obtaining data from the interviewees.

a) Focused Interview.—Good and Scates define the focused interview as a technique in which the persons interviewed are known to have been involved in a particular concrete situation, and one in which the hypothetically significant elements, patterns, and total structure of the particular situation have been previously analyzed (content analysis) by the investigator, and on the basis of this analysis, the investigator has developed an interview guide.¹ Moreover, they state that the focused interview is itself focused on the subjective experiences of the persons exposed to the pre-analyzed situation.²

On this basis, five of these persons in this study were interviewed through the focused interview arrangement. The five persons were known to the investigators (the writer, Miss Holliday, and Dr. Powell) as individuals who were concretely related to the life and work of Mrs. Bethune. The investigators also used an interview guide (the same as the questionnaire which will be discussed later) which had been prepared by the writer on the basis of his knowledge of Mrs. Bethune. Likewise, the interviews were confined to the subjective experiences of the interviewees.

Dr. Powell and Miss Holliday interviewed persons with whom they are personally acquainted whereas the writer had not previously met the individuals whom he interviewed. Consequently, the writer used stationery bearing the letterhead, Bureau of Social and Religious Research, when requesting an interview with the first interviewee. The response was immediate and favorable. This was an interview with Dr. William Faulkner, minister, Park Manor Congregational Church, Chicago. Dr. Faulkner had known Mrs. Bethune over a period of forty-five years and offered many enlightening comments to the writer concerning her life and work. The name of the second interviewee was suggested by Dr. Tyler Thompson, well-known to the Negro leaders of Evanston, and subsequently, the interview was effected. This was the interview with Dr. S. E. McDonald, a prominent leader in Evanston Negro circles. Mr. McDonald had met Mrs. Bethune on numerous occasions and had seen her as she presided over Negro gatherings. He shared his impressions freely with the writer and suggested still another possible interviewee, Mrs. Cora Watson, of Evanston. Mrs. Watson also granted the writer an interview. She had known Mrs. Bethune through her activities in the National Association of Colored Women. She provided the writer with an intimate glimpse of Mrs. Bethune as an organizer and as a public speaker.

The writer does not have a description of the interviews conducted by Dr. Powell and Miss Holliday, however, the data received from these investigators indicate that their interviews were successful. Dr. Powell interviewed an educator and Miss Holliday interviewed a retired librarian. Both persons had known Mrs. Bethune over long periods and provided significant impressions.

The three interviews conducted by the writer proved to be personally rewarding in permitting an introduction to three prominent Negro leaders in the Chicago area. The indirect social approach and the direct frank approach were used in creating rapport with these interviews. The writer sensed in the interviewees a desire to relate to the experience of an illustrious subject such as Mrs. Bethune. One interview lasted more than an hour, and the other two were completed in less than an hour.

b) Impressionistic Interview.—The impressionistic interview is one in which the investigator seeks to obtain from the interviewee subjective impressions of a given subject. The