Mary McLeod Bethune

A Black activist, Bethune is one of those who believes that temperance increases support but is also willing to do what she believes is right despite the odds against her. When Bethune desires to go to Africa as a missionary, she realizes she is actually needed in the United States and, armed with one dollar and fifty cents and a strong belief in her own abilities, she sets out to start a girls' school in Daytona, Florida. She does so, selling cakes and pies and then going to philanthropists for support. By age sixty-one, she is heavily involved in several organizations and focuses on "her four passions: race, women, education, and youth." Bethune is credited with bringing those four issues to the forefront of the national political arena with FDR's campaign. Bethune is cited as having the ability to meet opposition and bring it to her...