Mary
Mc. Leod Bethune
When children pley, they imitate the
world of adult, not only its vices but alsi its virtues. In 1884, in the South
Carolina Town of Marysville,a young black girl named Mary Mc. Leod learned this
in a painful way. She exlpains how in her own words:
One day I was with my mother while she delivered
loundry. As we came to our house, I noticed some white girls playing. One of
them called me to join them in their play. In their play house, I saw some
colorful books on the table. I picked one of them up and looked at the
pictures. Suddenly one of the girls rushed up to me and took the book away. In
a rather loud voice she explaines: “ Put the book down! You can’t read! Books
are only for people that can read”
Then Mary Mc. Leod decided to learn
to read and write. She could help other black people. When she was eleven, she
got scholarship to study at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois.
After finishing her studies in1895, Mary left Chicago and returned to the
South. There she married Albertus Bethune and continued her efforts to educate
black people. In 1904, she went to Daytona, Florida, and in Negro section of
the city they found her people living under almost primitive condition.
Children roamed around the streets without care and without love. She found
entire families living in one room, and the unsanitary condition of the area
made it subject to many kinds of diseases.
All that Mrs. Bethune could think of
was: How can these people rise from such bad condition? Where will they learn
about a better life and how to make it possible? And then she though of an old
proverb which says: “If you want a job done, do it yourself”.
(Adapted from the American Sketchbook)
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