Mary Mcleod Bethune Thesis

FACTS: Linda Brown, an African American third grader applied for admission to an all-white public school, Sumner Elementary, in Topeka, Kansas and was refused by the board of education of Topeka. A class action lawsuit, represented by NAACP lawyers, was filed in 1951 in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. This case consolidated the four other cases filed in separate states, all having in common African American children denied admission to segregated, all-white public schools based on race.

During the age of reconstruction, the freedman’s bureau launched the opening of up to 1000 schools for African American children presiding in the south. An assortment of north- sponsored colleges made for African

In 1951 schools were separated by skin color, or segregated. The Brown v. Board of Education trial was brought to court because a third-grader, Linda Brown, was not allowed to attend the elementary school that was closest to her house. She wa required to take the bus to school across town instead. In the trial the point that “Education for Negroes is almost nonexistent(13).” This is an example of how there were old problems in the Fourteenth Amendment that needed to be changed. Another issue that was brought up in the trial was that, “Segregation… has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children…(19).” Without the proper education at segregated

Sixty-two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled the “separate but equal” doctrine unconstitutional. The decision from the Plessy v. Ferguson case was lawfully denounced by the Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown case, which was initiated by the members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), served as a stimulus for challenging segregation in all areas of society, especially in public educational institutions. Among the support for the desegregation in school systems, there was a young yet compelling voice who was heard by numerous ears in the rural city in Farmville, Alabama. The virtuous and determined Barbara Johns, who was only a high school student then led her tiny, hovel-like school’s student body and the Farmville community to file a lawsuit in the hope of terminating the inequality in regards to the educational system.

     Mary McLeod Bethune was an innovative leader because she took a story which was largely latent in the population, equal education rights for black children, and brought it to national prominence through the creation of the Bethune-Cookman college. She was also a visionary leader because of the incredible success she was able to attain in advancing the cause of equal education.

There was a heavy amount of contextual evidence demonstrated throughout this book, what with the minute print and informative words given. The perspectives of the South and the North were infused with the perspectives of people today, and how discrimination has been implemented throughout our society both then and now. With ‘the intent to introduce readers to individual African American working women’ [Preface, xv], she elicits such feelings and highlights the real struggle of those African Americans that were confirmed and transformed by giving examples from historical events such as The Great Depression, the American Revolution, Labor movements and reforms in both the North and the South.

During the reconstruction, ex-slaves tried their best to relocate their families by any means necessary. Some would walk more than 600 miles from Georgia to North Carolina, searching for love ones whom were sold away before the war started. As the Emancipation bought the African American families closer, many black women devoted most of their time at home while the men worked the assembly lines. Others fought their ways through educational systems to establish the first nation’s black university such as Fisk University, Howard University, and etc. Education became the next big thing in the south, the closest thing to liberty.

In her early years, Shirley Chisholm was separated from her parents and lived in the Barbados. Through this experience, she was able to prove her willpower by being a studious student in school despite the hardship she faced of being away from her parents. This determination benefited her when she came back home to the racist and misogynistic United States at ten years old. Her exceptional grade statuses helped her graduate at the top of her class and earn a scholarship to college so that she could pursue her dream as a school teacher. After she became a teacher, she was content with her position; but after observing lower wages, verbal assaults such as a woman being asked, “Do you type?” when given an interview, and many other discrepancies that blacks and women endured, she became more alert in the brutal society around her and turned to politics.

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune has paved the way for african-american adolescents, like myself, to live a life of greater quality. Being born of slaves, no one imagined that her values would manifest into a prestigious Historically Black College/University. From toiling in fields with her family, to becoming the president of an accredited college was a huge accomplishment for blacks at the time. Mary Bethune’s prosperity didn’t conclude with the commencement of her own distinguished university, but she became a national leader. The National Association of Colored Women became popularized for advocating the enhancement of colored women in society. In this organization, Bethune served as Florida chapter president from 1917 to 1925. Her duties included:

The lack of education was an issue regarding black people because of their race. In Florida the Jim Crow Laws state, “The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately” (“Jim Crow Laws-Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site”). Due to the separation of the black and white school much of the money sent towards the school went to the white only school. This shows that the state did not want interracial schools and refers back to the thought “separate but equal” but not really equal. Although the thought was “separate but equal”, it doesn’t exactly mean people will follow that thought. In Concord, North Carolina, a black woman named Mary McLeod Bethune wanted to spread education for other black children. McLeod opened a school with any money she had and borrowed, for an all black girl institute in Daytona Beach. When other people discovered what she did, the Ku Klux Klan threatened to burn down the school, but never followed through. In 1929, the all girls’ school merged with an all men’s school (“The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow”). “It is our pledge to make a lasting contribution to all that is finest and best in America, to cherish and enrich her heritage of freedom

Harriet West was born in Jefferson City, MO in 1904 as Harriet M Hardin. She graduated

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The

It was not until during the Civil War that Vincent Colyer, army chaplain, established the first school for freed people on July 23, 1863. Furthermore, in 1896 the United States’ Supreme Court established the “separate but equal” doctrine regarding the education between blacks and whites. This consisted of three main principles. The first stipulated that as long as the state provided education for whites, it must for blacks as well. The second stated that the treatment of black students must be the same as that of the white students. The third demanded that the educational building centers of the whites and blacks must be in the exact same quality. These requirements seem to be an automatic necessity now, yet then it was not. The educational system has changed so much, along with society

Education was one of things that every parent wanted for their children regardless of whatever situation they were in. Public schools were segregated. In 1954 there was a lawsuit that ended legal segregation in public schools known as Brown V. Board of Education. In the fall of 1950, the NAACP sued on behalf of third-grader Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas (Gates, 2013, p.323). Brown’s parents lived near a white school and wanted their daughter to attend that school because it was closer to their home than any other school that was around them. Thurgood Marshall was one of the lawyers for the NAACP during the time and argued that segregation condemns children, thinking that they lower than the whites that the Court had supposedly threw out in the Plessy case. The Court also heard from other families that were going through the same situation as Brown. May 17th, 1954, the Court ruled in favor of the black students. This decision allowed blacks to attend any public school that they

Anne Moody participated in a sit-in at a restaurant and remained in the white section because all she wanted was the service from the waitress (2). The members of the movement often just want to be recognized as normal people and receive the same treatment and respect as white men. Protests were not ideal for the U.S. government, so they passed the Civil Rights Act which forbids discrimination in the workplace based on gender and race (archives.gov). Although it would seem as if every race now had equal opportunity compared to the white man, many southerners still continued to treat the African Americans with disrespect by finding a “loophole” in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This loophole had “exemptions from the employment discrimination prohibition of Title VII for businesses of less than 15 people, and the exemption from the Public Accommodations provision of Title II for small, owner-occupied motels and lodging establishments. Presumably, these exceptions exist for the benefit of racists who grew up in a racist system through no fault of their own” (Chin). This limited African Americans to few jobs since many companies were so small. Even today, in 2017, the Jefferson County school district in Alabama has all of their schools segregated. “U.W. Clemon, who represents black plaintiffs in the case, said the ruling undermines more than