Timelines

Sources: [] [] [] []

Information on Mary McLeod Bethune is in **bold**, and information on the context of the time is plain.

Context: Progressive Era – middle class reform efforts to help with issues in U.S. (urbanization, immigration, industrialization resolved with child labor laws, women’s suffrage, banking reform, settlement houses for women in need, and improved food safety). However, African Americans and other immigrants were segregated and restricted (schools, churches, courthouses, water fountains, restaurants, hotels, stores, parks). *Blacks in the south were poor, landless sharecroppers and farmers. *Not only affected African Americans, but Native Americans, Mexicans, and Asians as well.

** July 10, 1875 – Mary McLeod was born in Mayesville, South Carolina to parents who had been slaves (along with 16 siblings, most of whom were born into slavery). After her parents were freed, they bought a family farm, where Mary helped out. ** ** *5 ft., 4 in. tall ** ** *ebony black skin ** ** *enjoyed music and dancing **

** 1886 – Mary wanted to read and write, so she went to a one-room Trinity Mission School at age 11. She walked 5 miles to and from school every day, and then each evening taught her family all she had learned. **

** 1888-1894 – Mary’s teacher and mentor, Emma Jane Wilson, had attended Scotia Seminary and arranged for McLeod to go on scholarship. After Scotia Seminary, she went to Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago wanting to become a missionary in Africa, but was told black missionaries weren’t needed. Instead she planned to become a teacher (her first position was at her former elementary school). **

1895 – Frederick Douglas dies (had been an aggressive leader with protesting). Booker T. Washington becomes African American leader and gives //Atlanta Compromise// speech; not emphasis on politics, but more of a peacemaker. More on the Booker T. Washington era: []

1896: Plessy v. Ferguson: separate but equal

** 1896 – Mary begins teaching at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta, Georgia, run by Lucy Craft Laney, a former slave, who ran the school with Christian values, emphasizing character and practical education for girls but also accepted boys. Mary ended up using many of Laney’s philosophies to improve conditions of blacks by educating mostly women. **

** 1897-1898 – Mary was transferred to teach at Kindell Institute in Sumter, South Carolina, where she met her future husband, Albertus Bethune. **

** 1898 – Mary McLeod married Albertus Bethune and moved to Savannah, Georgia, where she did social work for a year. The couple eventually had a son. **

** 1899 – Bethune moved to Florida to run a mission school. **

1900 – Indian boarding schools try to “Americanize” Native American Indians with vocational and manual training for boys and domestic training for girls. This led to homesickness and disease among Native Americans. *”Red Progressives” included many former students of the boarding schools who fought against oppression. More on Indian boarding schools: []

Early 1900s – Asians came to America for economic opportunities, but laws prevented Japanese from becoming U.S. citizens, owning land, and prevented wives of Chinese male immigrants from coming to U.S.

1903 – Women’s Trade Union League founded

** 1904 – Bethune rents a schoolhouse in Daytona, FL for $11/month to become Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. ** ** *made benches and desks from crates and got other items through charity ** ** *students consisted of 5 girls aged 6-12 and her son, Albert ** ** *raised funds selling sweet potato pies, ice cream, and fried fish to construction crews ** ** *ink for pens made from elderberry juice and pencils from burned wood ** ** *looked for furniture in local businesses ** ** *black churches donated money, equipment, and labor ** ** *involved powerful white men to sit on school board ** ** *Curriculum was Christian based. The girls got up at 5:30 a.m. for Bible study, and classes included home economics, dressmaking, millinery, cooking, and crafts. The day ended at 9 p.m. Science and business courses were later added, followed by high school math, English, and foreign languages. ** ** *Enrollment grew, value rose, and higher education courses were later added. ** ** *Bethune carried a cane for effect, not because she needed it. ** ** *Students often called her “Mama Bethune.” **

1906 – San Francisco earthquake *Records were destroyed, and many Chinese male immigrants claimed to be born in the U.S., making them citizens and allowing their wives to come to the U.S.

** 1907 – Bethune’s devotion to education for African American children strains her marriage, and Albertus leaves the family without a divorce and moves to South Carolina. **

1909 – NAACP founded by W. E. B. Du Bois and progressives. W. E. B. DuBois took an aggressive, political protest approach. More on DuBois: []

1911 – Society of American Indians founded More on the Society of American Indians: []

1914 – Federal Trade Commission created

1917-1918 – WWI Great Migration *More than half a million African Americans moved north for opportunities from wartime labor.

** 1917-1925 – Bethune served as Florida president of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). **

** 1918 – Albertus Bethune died. **

1919 – Eighteenth Amendment on prohibition ratified *Red Summer of 1919: black men served in war, but this didn’t help their citizenship claims or their racist environment; in fact, many returned to violence and death, and hundreds lost lives in anti-black race riots.

1920 – Nineteenth Amendment on federal woman suffrage ratified - Mexican immigrants came to the U.S. for economic opportunities but encounter job discrimination, being able to get only low-paying jobs in mining, railroad construction, and agriculture.

** 1923 - Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls merges with Cookman Institute for Men to become the Bethune-Cookman School. **

1929 – League of United Latin American Citizens founded by Mexican workers to put a stop to unfair working conditions.

** 1935 – Bethune founded National Council of Negro Women in New York City, which focused on improvement of quality of life for women and their communities. **

** 1936 – Bethune accepted a full-time position at National Youth Administration (NYA), which provided employment for young people (16-25) who were no longer in school and had no job. Within 2 years, she became the first African American female agency head as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs, releasing NYA funds to help African American students through school programs. **

** 1936-1942 – Bethune served part-time as president of Bethune-Cookman School, but had to give it up for health reasons. **

** 1938 – Through befriending Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Bethune forms Federal Council on Negro Affairs, made up of leaders from black organizations, which later becomes the Black Cabinet, an advisory board to the Roosevelt administration on issues faced by African Americans. **

** 1943 – NYA terminated **

** 1948 – Bethune was the only African American woman present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco, representing NAACP with W. E. B. DuBois and Walter White. **

** 1949 – Bethune was the first woman to be given Medal of Honor and Merit and Haitian Exposition (Haiti’s highest award). ** ** - She served as the U.S. emissary to the induction of President William V.S. Tubman of Liberia. **

** May 18, 1955 – Bethune died of a heart attack at 79 years old in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was buried on the Bethune-Cookman College campus. **