Treasured Moments In Black History: Mary McLeod Bethune

Hope has a strange way of shining. It’s most evident in difficult times. This is Treasured Moments In Black History.

She was born in 1875. The 15th of 17 children. Her parents were freed slaves, but Mary McLeod and her family were in bondage to poverty.

But no poverty stung worse than Mary’s pain of being unable to read. At the age of ten, Mary began to attend school, walking five miles each way. Here she learned reading, writing, and arithmetic and also gained a lifetime passion for the education of Black girls. Her passion came from a Biblical sense of equality made clear to her in a study of John 3:16.

Mary became a teacher, a skilled debater, and a powerful evangelist for Christ. She enrolled and graduated from Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home & Foreign Missions in Chicago, now the Moody Bible Institute. She experienced it as a place of racial equality, demonstrating that Black and white people could live and work together in harmony.

She had a passion for missions, but was turned down for service in Africa. In May of 1898, she became Mary Bethune after marrying Albertus Bethune. And in 1904, she opened a school for Negro girls. She went on to achieve great things for Christ, including service under President Coolidge, Hoover, and Roosevelt.

But Mary McLeod Bethune never forgot her highest calling: to be a missionary for Jesus Christ. What an amazing woman!

History is more than dates and events. It’s a bridge that brought us to the present.

Treasured Moments in Black History is brought to you by Moody Publishers and their book Kingdom Race Theology by Dr. Tony Evans.

In every generation, God uses ordinary people to accomplish great things!
Treasured Moments in Black History by Moody Radio remembers the people and events in America that have shaped
history and inspired lives. By looking back and highlighting these moments, you will be inspired,
enriched and encouraged in your faith walk to make history for God’s kingdom.