#sayitloud

[tubbsmccracken]

This has been a great month of learning so much about Black History. I will continue learning more every day this year. Black History is 365 days every year.

[usnatarchives]

Mary McLeod Bethone with National Youth Administration youth, image here.

Mary McLeod Bethune to Return to Capitol Hill (as an impressive addition to Statuary Hall)

By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

We continue our celebration of Black History Month (Feb) and Women's History Month (March) with Civil Rights icon and DC power broker extraordinaire Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955).

Dr. Bethune will soon join the Old Boys Club on Capitol Hill (90 of the 100 statues there are of men), as an impressive 3 ton, 11 foot statue in the Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Created by sculptor Nilda Comas, the statue's pedestal reads: “Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it may be a diamond in the rough.” Women’s History Month bonus! Comas will be the first Latina artist to have a sculpture in the National Statuary Hall.

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born in South Carolina in 1875, the 15th of 17 children to former slaves Samuel and Patsy McLeod. She was a passionate educator, community organizer, presidential advisor, Civil Rights and women's rights activist, decades-long public servant (60 years), and patriot, in addition to mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her long list of achievements include:

1st Black woman to lead a federal agency.

1st Black women with a university founded in her name.

Founder of the National Council of Negro Women to advocate for and advance rights for Black women, their families and communities.

Leader of FDR's unofficial "Black Cabinet." Used this position to creating jobs for Blacks in the federal government and New Deal agencies.

As Director of Negro Affairs, she was the highest paid Black government employee in 1939—with a $5,000 salary (equivalent to $100,000 today.

VP of the NAACP in 1940, a position she held for the rest of her life.

Helped establish the Women’s Army Corps (1942) and ensured it was racially integrated.

Archivist and chronicler of Black women's history.

Bethune was the only Black woman at the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945.

Despite the attitude of some employers in refusing to hire Negros to perform needed, skilled services, and despite the denial of the same opportunities and courtesies to our youth in the armed forces of our country, we must not fail America and as Americans, we must not let America fail us.

Her life was celebrated with a memorial statue in Washington DC in 1974, and a stamp in 1985.

“We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.”

Bethune and Hoover President Hoover invited her to the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, and then appointed her to a commission to plan a “National Memorial Building” in DC “as a tribute to the Negro’s contribution to the achievements of America.” Congress did not back the project and private fundraising also failed. More than 80 years later, this vision became reality when the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in DC.

Bethune and FDR In 1935, President Roosevelt invited her to DC to serve as a Special Advisor to the National Youth Administration, and then named her National Youth Association Director of Negro Affairs, making her the first Black woman to lead a federal agency. During World War II she advocated for African American women to be allowed to serve in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WACS) and Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES).

Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt

None of us certainly can say that as yet we have perfect democracy, nor even the democracy that Abraham Lincoln and others of our great men envisioned. But I for one am proud that our country could produce a Mrs. Bethune. Your achievements are a tribute to our nation even more a tribute to your own individual spirit and effort. Eleanor Roosevelt.

Portrait of Mary McLeod Bethune, NARA ID 559194. From the Harmon Foundation, a nonprofit, private foundation for African art. More online.

Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt and others at the opening of Midway Hall, "one of two residence halls built by the Public Buildings Administration of Federal Works Agency for Negro government girls..." May 1943, NARA ID 533032.

Eleanor Roosevelt receives Mary McLeod Bethune Human Rights Award from Dorothy Height, National Council of Negro Women President, 11/12/1960, NARA ID 196283.

In her last will and testament from 1955, Dr. Bethune wrote:

I leave you hope. The Negro’s growth will be great in the years to come. Yesterday our ancestors endured the degradation of slavery, yet they retained their dignity. Today, we direct our strength toward winning a more abundant and secure life. Tomorrow, a new Negro, unhindered by race taboos and shackles, will benefit from more than 330 years of ceaseless struggle. Theirs will be a better world. This I believe with all my heart. Correspondence Between Harry S. Truman and Mary McLeod Bethune, Truman Library,

See also:

Before Kamala: Black Women in Presidential Administrations, Rediscovering Black History

Official Personnel Folder for Mary McLeod Bethune, NARA ID 158329664.

Mary Bethune: Adviser to Presidents, Hoover Heads blog

Providing a New Deal for Young Black Women: Mary McLeod Bethune and the Negro Affairs Division of the National Youth Association, Rediscovering Black History.

Featured NARA public program: Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

Mustering Out: the Navy’s First Black Yeowomen, Rediscovering Black History

See also: The original 19th Amendment, now on view in the exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, through April 10th.

[marcusmonroe22]

#writer #writersofinstagram #wordporn #wordoftheday #hugglefuck #sayitloud #wordsaregood #hewrites #thursdayvibes #silentknight #darkknight #slowhand https://www.instagram.com/p/Cftn1kBuBKw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[blackmensmile]

PR✊🏾UD Say It Louder...than ever before. #blackandproud #blackisbeautiful #sayitloud #resist #proud https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq08HJJpJnC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[introvertedx10]

[brettesims]

Took the return of the civil rights movement for my art to sell the way it should smh, but honey we have arrived 😀! This piece was purchased from a buyer named George! He purchased it for his daughter Sydney to put in her dorm room. 💜🔮 #artbybrette

[lina2396]

Because it needs to be said..

So can we all just agree that people who use their children as pawns to get what they want/manipulate a situation or person are disgusting? 🤷🏻‍♀️

[goldiebelleforever]

Yes let’s celebrate the beautiful and talented Sharmell Huffman today and everyday! So proud of you and all of your accomplishments! #Repost @missblackamericapageant ・・・ #Share #Register for Your own Miss Black America Pageant Experience! https://www.missblackamerica.com/pageant-registry Check out this Miss Black America Pageant Throwback to 1991. See Miss Black America of All Time (Circa 1991)Sharmell Sullivan-Huffman, front row left. She also Won the Swimsuit Competition that year. She went on to tour with James Brown, become Queen of Wrestling's WWE, a Super Producer of the Reality of Wrestling and so much more. She is also a selfless community servant and we are overtly proud to have her as a lifetime member of the Sisterhood of Miss Black America! ☆In those days the white pumps were a Pageant Standard. #ReignOn #SharmellSullivanHuffman #50YearsOfMissBlackAmerica #StillDope #OpportunityPageant #ActivistPageant #ByYouForYouAboutYOU #MissBlackAmericaServes #SayItLoud #MakingHistory #GodBlessMissBlackAmerica @thequeenofmedia @realsharmell #sharmellhuffman #QueenSharmell @bookertfightsforkids @realityofwrestling @goldiebellellc #YJBTalent @yjbtalent https://www.instagram.com/p/B2nkpCXl16F/?igshid=jw782bv1ycdp