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."
