Mary McLeod Bethune: Investing in Black Girls is Still Urgent

Let me tell you about a woman who saw the future in Black girls when the world refused to. Mary McLeod Bethune didn’t just open a school—she built a lifeline.

In 1904, with just $1.50, a handful of faith, and a heart full of fire, she started the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, what we now know as Bethune-Cookman University.

She did it because she had to.

Black girls in the South weren’t just being denied education—they were being denied futures. No one was preparing them for leadership, for ownership, for power. Society had already written their destinies in invisible ink: servants, laborers, the unseen and unheard. 

But Bethune had a different vision.

She gathered five little Black girls, armed with nothing but cast-off books and boundless dreams, and she taught them everything she knew. But she gave them more than reading and writing—she gave them pride, dignity, and the belief that they were worthy of something bigger. That belief changed everything.

And yet, here we are in 2025, and Black girls are still fighting 

• for safe schools, 
• for safe spaces, 
• for recognition of their rights, 
• for fully-funded futures, 
• for leaders who see them and 
• invest in them. 

Our girls still need scholarships, mentorships, protection, and policies that center them.

Bethune built something out of nothing, not because she had all the resources, but because she knew that Black girls deserve everything.

So the question isn’t whether the need is still urgent. The question is: 

What are we building today?

Which leaders are willfully ignoring the needs of Black girls? 

How long will we accept it?

Who invests in girls without exception or apology?

“Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living.” 

~ Mary McLeod Bethune

“A woman is free if she lives by her own standards and creates her own destiny, if she prizes her individuality and puts no boundaries on her hopes for tomorrow.” 

~ Mary McLeod Bethune

“I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity.” 

~ Mary McLeod Bethune

“Our children must never lose their zeal for

building a better world.” 

~ Mary McLeod Bethune

“I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth.”