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- [00:00]
Jason Alexander
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- [00:22]
Peter Tilden
Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device, credit.
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Jason Alexander
Service port in 90 plus days with.
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Peter Tilden
Device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [00:31]
Jason Alexander
I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together our mission on the really Know really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum a failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign. Jason Bobblehead the Really no really Podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.
- [01:04]
Holly Fry
And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.
- [01:11]
Jason Alexander
Each season we explore a new theme, from poisoners to art thieves.
- [01:16]
Holly Fry
We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.
- [01:22]
Jason Alexander
And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.
- [01:29]
Holly Fry
Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
- [01:47]
Peter Tilden
Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
- [01:51]
Holly Fry
And I'm Holly Fry.
- [01:52]
Peter Tilden
The other day I was scrolling on my phone and I got to a movie trailer. I did not instantly know what movie this trailer could be for, but then Kerry Washington said, soldiers, I am Captain Charity Adams. And I burst into tears. Maybe I was having a day, I don't know, but I was really happy about the idea of the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion getting a movie. So happy that I started crying. And then a few seconds after that, I instantly recognized Mary McLeod Bethune, who was being played by Oprah Winfrey. Mary McLeod Bethune has been on my list for a very long time. We have gotten tons of listener requests for an episode about her, so this is not a sponsored episode for this movie. I just decided that this whole trailer experience was a sign that I needed to move Mary McLeod Bethune up to the top of the list. We are recording this on December 17th, so the movie is not out yet. It is scheduled to hit Netflix on December 20, so it will be out by the time the episode comes out. I have no idea what people will think of this movie once they've seen it, but it did inspire this episode today.
- [03:13]
Holly Fry
Mary Jane McLeod was born on July 10, 1875 near Maysville, South Carolina. According to most sources, she was the 15th of 17 children born to Samuel and Patsy McLeod. Her parents and older siblings had been enslaved, and some of her oldest siblings had also been sold away from the rest of the family. Once these siblings learned that they had been freed, they made their way back to the farm where Samuel had been enslaved, and from there they all reunited with Mary's parents, meeting some of their grandchildren for the first time.
- [03:49]
Peter Tilden
Of course, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, and the 13th amendment abolishing slavery was ratified on December 6, 1865. So this was years before Mary Jane McLeod was born, and a lot of writing about her says that she was the first in her family to be free from birth. That idea really seems to be everywhere, including in full length biographies that have been published about her just over the last few years, but it does not appear to be true, even if we kind of set aside the Emancipation Proclamation, which Confederate authorities and enslavers might have refused to recognize. She had at least two older siblings, Kissy and William, who were born after 1865. They're listed on census records for 1870 and 1880, and in 1870 their ages are listed as only 1 and 3. This is something we're going to talk about some more on Friday, because I went down a whole huge rabbit hole about it.
- [04:56]
Holly Fry
Samuel and Patsy were loving, strict and devoutly religious, welcoming circuit riders whenever they passed through the area and acting as leaders in their Methodist church. They made their living growing and selling cotton. After the end of the Civil War, Patsy McLeod had continued to work for her former enslaver as a cook until she was able to save up enough money to buy five acres of land, and the family eventually saved up enough to buy 30 more acres. Patsy also took in laundry and did domestic work, and it really took everyone, including the children, to support the family. Before the end of the Civil War, it had been illegal to educate enslaved people in South Carolina. And afterward, many of Mary's older siblings, who were still school aged, only had the opportunity to go to school when they had access to one for black students and also when they weren't needed on the farm.
- [05:52]
Peter Tilden
In an interview that she gave later on in her life, Bethune described herself as different from her siblings, even down to just liking different foods. Her older sisters wanted to get married early, but she really did not. Instead, she described herself as having a missionary spirit and a desire to do things for other people, including doing things like sharing her shoes with children who didn't have any. Her family seems to have seen her as different as well, but they also supported her in that difference. She also really, really wanted to learn how to read. One of her formative experiences in her childhood happened when she accompanied her mother to work at the home of a white family. One day, when Mary picked up a book in the playhouse where this family's children did their schoolwork, one of them told her to put it down because she could not read. And in her words quote, it just did something to my pride and to my heart.
- [06:53]
Holly Fry
So in 1885, when 17 year old Emma Jane Wilson came to the farm looking for children to teach at the newly established Trinity Chapel Presbyterian Mission School in Maysville, Mary was allowed to go. She had to walk four or five miles each way every day to get there. And when she got home, she would try to teach her family everything that she had learned. She also started helping to handle things that required literacy or math skills, like selling the cotton crop. Learning itself was also just a joy. In Bethune's words, the whole world opened to me when I learned to read.
- [07:30]
Peter Tilden
Wilson was a patient, dedicated and caring teacher. But within a couple of years, Mary, who sometimes also was called Mary Jane, when she was little, she'd learn what she could from the school. But then she learned that a scholarship was available to continue her education at Scotia Seminary, a Presbyterian seminary that's now Barber Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina. There she was in the school's chorus and on the debate team, and she was often a soloist at church. She graduated from there on June 13, 1884.
- [08:06]
Holly Fry
Mary Jane McLeod was devoutly religious. She started every day with meditation and scripture reading, and for a long time her dream had been to become a missionary and to go to Africa. She learned about another scholarship, this time to Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, Illinois, that's now Moody's Bible Institute. And she found out this was a Place where she could train to do that work. She had thought of her education up to this point had been at schools for black students, but at the Bible institute, she was the only black student. Her coursework included Bible and music study as well as practical work, doing things like visiting people in their homes, local missions and jails.
- [08:51]
Peter Tilden
But when she applied to become a missionary in Africa, she was denied. According to her account later on, the Presbyterian mission board told her it did not have any openings for a black missionary in Africa. She was deeply upset about this, and for a time she went back home to South Carolina. When the mission board told her it had an appointment for her at the Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia, she went there.
- [09:19]
Holly Fry
After teaching in Augusta for a while, she moved on to Sumter, South Carolina, to work at another Presbyterian mission school. There she sang in the church choir, which is where she met Albertus Bethune. They got married on May 6, 1898, and afterward they moved to Savannah. Their son, Albertus Macleod Bethune, was born there on February 3, 1889.
- [09:44]
Peter Tilden
In most biographies of Mary McLeod Bethune, her husband, Albertus, just sort of disappears to an extent. Her son does as well. She was intensely private about her personal life. This was something that was necessary given society's expectations of women, especially of black women, and the need to always be seen as respectable in her public Persona. She gave an interview much later on in her life in which she described her husband as a fine young man with a beautiful tenor voice and an interest in their church activities, but not really in her educational pursuits at the same time. In the same interview, she said that their marriage and the birth of their child were not intended to impede the things that she inspired, that she aspired to do. Seems like her husband didn't get in the way of her work, but also didn't really participate in it.
- [10:41]
Holly Fry
Through a church connection, Bethune learned about a parochial school in Palatka, Florida, that needed a teacher, and the family moved there. She also made some extra money selling life insurance to black families. And she continued doing what we might think of as missionary and social work, like visiting people who were being held in local jails.
- [11:03]
Peter Tilden
In 1902, she started trying to open a school of her own. She wrote to people like Booker T. Washington and Robert Curtis Ogden to try to get their support, and funding this kind of fundraising is something she would continue to do for the rest of her career, including later on, writing to Julius Rosenwald. We talked about Rosenwald's efforts to fund schools for Black children. In August 2021, when Holly interviewed Andrew Filer about his book on these schools.
- [11:33]
Holly Fry
In 1904, the family moved to Daytona Beach. Bethune had heard that a school was desperately needed there and also thought there might be more opportunities than she had had in Palatka. She opened the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial School for training Negro girls. The school started out, in her words, with quote, five little girls, a dollar and a half and faith in God. She taught reading, writing and home economics and her six year old son was also a student. At first the school occupied one room in a cabin that she was renting and since they had no furniture, the students sat on dry goods boxes. But this school grew rapidly and within just two years she had 250 students.
- [12:21]
Peter Tilden
Sometime around 1907, Bethune's marriage ended for all practical purposes and her her husband returned to South Carolina. There's no real documentation of what happened, but since he died in 1918 of tuberculosis, there's some speculation that maybe he was ill and he needed more care than she could provide for him. So he return to his family. M never remarried and she listed her status on the 1910 census as widowed.
- [12:51]
Holly Fry
Her work with the school continued after this, and we'll get into that after a sponsor break.
- [12:59]
Jason Alexander
I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the really no really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions. Like why they were flying to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us. How are you? Hello. My friend Wayne Knight. About Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to really no really, sir. Bless you all. Hello Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening. Really? No really? Yeah, really? No really. Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason Bobblehead. It's called really no really. And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [14:10]
Peter Tilden
The school Mary McLeod Bethune established in Daytona beach continued to grow through the early 1900s, and in 1907, she raised money to buy land for a new campus. That was land that the city had previously been using as a dump site, so there was also cleanup involved. The first new building to be constructed there was called Faith hall, and later additions would include things like an administration building with an auditorium and more classroom space.
- [14:39]
Holly Fry
This on its own was an enormous effort, and it wasn't the only thing that Bethune was doing. In 1907, she also established a mission to provide aid and education to turpentine workers who were living in camps outside of the city due to segregation. Daytona beach and the surrounding area had no hospital that would treat black patients. So in 1911, Bethune opened one, naming it McLeod Hospital after her parents. It started out with just a couple of beds, and it was staffed by doctors as well as students at a nursing program that she also established. That hospital ran until 1927, and during those years, many of its patients received care for free because they had no money to pay.
- [15:25]
Peter Tilden
Bethune realized she needed a partner to help her manage this ever growing school, and in 1912, she went to New York to try to convince Francis Reynolds Kaiser to come to Florida and work with her. Bethune knew Kaiser by reputation, but not personally. Kaiser was a respected educator who had previously started a school for black children in Florida that had run for four years. When she and Bethune met, Kaiser was director of the White Rose Mission, which was focused on the needs of black women and girls who had just arrived in New York from the South. This mission offered services like travelers aid, shelter, job training, and assistance in finding work.
- [16:08]
Holly Fry
After they talked, Kaiser agreed to come, and the two women immediately committed themselves to both a personal and a professional relationship, in Bethune's words, pledging their allegiance to God and to each other. On bended knees and with clasped hands in her rented room in New York, Bethune and Kaiser lived and worked together for the next 12 years until Kaiser became disabled due to arthritis and other medical conditions and decided to return to New York.
- [16:37]
Peter Tilden
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote across the United States. States, as we've talked about on the show several times before, because of things like discriminatory laws and voter intimidation, in practice, this mostly applied to white women. Recognizing all of this, Bethune started a massive voter registration campaign for black women in Daytona beach, and in response, she was targeted by the Klux Klan, including clan members marching on her school while the students were there. She did not back down, though she also continued to face this kind of harassment and retaliation for her work throughout her life, including from the Klan and then later on during the McCarthy era, from people who baselessly accused her of being a communist.
- [17:30]
Holly Fry
By 1920, Bethune School had grown to the point that it was the second largest school for black girls and young women in the United States, behind Spelman Seminary in Atlanta. That year, she was also elected to the National Urban League's executive board. In 1923, she became the first woman to serve as president of the national association of Teachers of Colored Schools. A year later, she was elected president of the national association of Colored women's Clubs, which at the time was the largest political organization for black women in the United States.
- [18:05]
Peter Tilden
In 1927, Bethune met some people who would go on to have a huge impact on the next years of her life. And the same was true of her impact on them. They were Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Franklin's mother, Sarah, was hosting a meeting for the leaders of prominent women's groups at her home. As the story goes, Bethune was the only black person there, and everybody was avoiding her. But Eleanor Roosevelt made a point of sitting next to her.
- [18:35]
Holly Fry
Bethune and Roosevelt were close friends and colleagues for the rest of their lives, and their friendship was mutually beneficial for both of them. Bethune was a huge source of insight and knowledge for Roosevelt as she approached her own work on social and political issues, including women's rights. Bethune was already highly respected as an educator, and she had an influential leadership role in multiple national organizations focused on education and civil rights for black people. But starting in 1933, her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt also gave her direction ongoing access to the president of the United States.
- [19:14]
Peter Tilden
Bethune had been involved with other presidential administrations before this, including attending presidential conferences on child welfare during the presidencies of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. She always stressed that she was an educator, not a politician. But she also deeply understood that no matter how hard black educators, organizers and activists worked and how much they did for themselves, there needed to be robust government policies on issues like education, housing, voting rights, racial integration, and civil rights to make real change. Bethune's involvement with Roosevelt and his administration also led her to change her political party from Republican to Democrat, and she campaigned for his reelection in 1936 to.
- [20:03]
Holly Fry
Circle back to the school. In 1929, Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial School merged with the Cookman Institute. Originally the Cookman Institute for Boys of Jacksonville, Florida. The combined institute was initially called the Daytona Cookman Collegiate Institute, and it was affiliated with the Methodist Church. Bethune hoped that this connection to the church would bring more consistent funding to the school. Although this did work to an extent, the school didn't get as much funding as she had hoped, and Bethune had to do extensive fundraising during the Great Depression to try to offset that shortfall. During the work and strain of all of this, at one point she collapsed and had to spend several months in the hospital. The institute survived the Great Depression, though, and it was accredited by the association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States as a junior college in 1932. It began awarding its first baccalaureate degrees in 1943. Today it's known as Bethune Cookman University, and it has more than 3,000 students.
- [21:11]
Peter Tilden
In 1932, Frances Reynolds Kaiser died at the age of 67. Although she hadn't been able to do physical work during the last years of her life, because of her health and her disabilities, she had continued to write and to advocate. Through writing, Bethune had helped to support her financially and after her death wrote a memorial in which she described Kaiser as a rare gift of providence and their personal and professional relationship as a, quote, spiritual union and communion that can never be described.
- [21:43]
Holly Fry
In 1935, Bethune became the founding president of the National Council of Negro Women, or NCNW, serving in that role until 1949. That same year, she was awarded the Spingarn Award, which is the NAACP's highest honor.
- [22:00]
Peter Tilden
From 1936 to 1942, Bethune partially stepped back from her role as president of Bethune Cookman College so that she could spend more time in Washington, D.C. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt had named her Director of Negro affairs at the National Youth Administration. The National Youth Administration was part of the New Deal, and it was set up as a department under the Works Progress Administration. The National Youth Administration provided education, training and work study programs for people between the ages of 16 and 25.
- [22:35]
Holly Fry
Bethune recognized that black people would be left out of New Deal programs unless black communities advocated for their inclusion, and the government intentionally worked to do that. So she did extensive work to promote National Youth Administration programs and outreach specifically for black youth and to promote the involvement of young black people in these government programs.
- [22:59]
Peter Tilden
She was so effective at doing this that the Roosevelt administration established a whole new department, the Division of Negro affairs, ultimately making Bethune its director in 1938. She remained in this role until 1944. During this time, she retired as president of Bethune Cookman College, in part because she experienced a serious illness. But then she returned to that role in 1946 to add to all of her other leadership roles. She became vice president of the NAACP in 1940, and she held that position for the rest of her life. And she was also one of the educators who came together to establish the United Negro College Fund in 1944.
- [23:46]
Holly Fry
During these years in Washington, Bethune was also part of an informal group of presidential advisors known as the Federal Council on Negro affairs, more commonly known as the Black Cabinet or the Black Brain Trust. This started with a group of just a handful of people who met at Bethune's Washington, D.C. home to talk about how they could work together and in her words, quote, give momentum to the great ball that is starting to roll for Negroes. This group grew, eventually involving more than 50 people who were working in various positions within the executive branch of the government and New Deal agencies. Bethune was particularly prominent and influential among this group, both because of her experience, knowledge, and ongoing advocacy, and also because her friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt gave her so much access to the president.
- [24:36]
Peter Tilden
In addition to working to make sure that black people in communities had access to New Deal programs, this group advocated for the federal government to take a stand against lynching and to work to abolish discriminatory poll taxes and unpassable literacy tests that were preventing black people from exercising their right to vote. They also advocated for anti discrimination efforts within the federal government. This advocacy took place publicly and behind the scenes, and it also involved people outside of Washington, D.C. for example, we've talked about the efforts of A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in our prior episodes. On each of them, on June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, prohibiting race based discrimination in the defense industry and in the federal government. Afterward, Bethune wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, thanking her for her support and encouraging the President to do this.
- [25:39]
Holly Fry
Of course, this executive order was connected to World War II, and we're going to get into that after we pause for a sponsor break.
- [25:50]
Jason Alexander
I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden, and together on the really Know really podcast. Our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer, and you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us. How are you? Hello my friend Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to really no really Sir. Bless you all. Hello Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really?
- [26:35]
Holly Fry
That's the opening?
- [26:36]
Jason Alexander
Really? Not really. Yeah, no really. Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win 500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason Bobblehead. It's called really no really and you can find find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [27:01]
Peter Tilden
Executive Order 8802 was issued before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the US Declaration of war against Japan. But war related industries had already been scaling up, both because the United States was offering support to the Allied nations and because of the possibility that the US Would become directly involved in the Second World War. This had created a ton of new jobs, and Executive Order 8802 was meant to help make sure that those jobs would be open to black workers and that black people would also be able to work in them without facing racism or harassment on the job. There was also ongoing advocacy for the military to be racially integrated, but that integration did not happen until after the war.
- [27:51]
Holly Fry
Once the US became directly involved in World War II. Bethune also advocated for black people to serve in the armed forces. In her words, quote, this is America's war and we too are Americans. In 1942, Bethune was part of the board that established the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, later the Women's Army Corps, and she worked to ensure that there would also be units established for black women. One of these units was the 6 Triple 8 Central Postal Directory Battalion. Our episode on them ran as a Saturday Classic on March 26, 2022, and the movie on them is of course, what inspired this episode. Bethune advocated for Black women to be included in the Navy's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, or waves. As well, she was also named an honorary General in the Women's army for National Defense. That was a volunteer organization for Black women in support of the war effort.
- [28:49]
Peter Tilden
In addition to her focus on black women, Bethune also advocated for traditionally black colleges and universities to be included in the civilian Pilot Training program, which brought new opportunities to train as pilots. One of the most famous units to come from this program was the Tuskegee Airmen. Although there were Black women who trained as pilots through these programs, the women Air Force Service pilots who we have also covered on the show did not include black women.
- [29:19]
Holly Fry
In the last months of World War II, a conference was held in San Francisco, California, to draft the charter for an international organization that would work to help preserve peace around the world. The result was the United nations, which was formally established on October 24, 1945. Bethune was one of the delegates to this conference appointed by President Harry S. Truman. She advocated for the UN Charter to include a focus on equal rights regardless of race, sex and religion. She later wrote an open letter about this work in which she said, quote, through this conference, the Negro becomes closely allied with the darker races of the world, but more importantly, he becomes integrated into the structure of the peace and freedom of all people everywhere.
- [30:07]
Peter Tilden
That same year, Bethune started working with real estate developers to form Bethune Volusia Beach Corporation. Its purpose was to buy oceanfront property in Daytona beach to establish a beach that was not only accessible to black people, but was also black owned. A few years later, Bethune also pooled funds with three other investors to start a hotel there that would welcome black visitors.
- [30:34]
Holly Fry
In October of 2022, we did an episode on Paul Robeson and the Peekskill Riots, and we talked about how he faced widespread condemnation after a performance in speech at the Paris Peace Congress in 1949. English language news reports, one of them, filed before he had even started to speak, didn't match up to a French transcript of his extemporaneous remarks and claimed that he had compared the US Government to Hitler and Goebbels. Prominent black figures were called on to denounce Robison in his remarks, including Bethune, who said, quote, Mr. Robeson does not speak for Negroes who have always remained loyal to American ideals, even when there are weak points in those ideals.
- [31:20]
Peter Tilden
Bethune traveled in the United States and internationally at various points in her life, but two notable trips took place after World War II. One was to Haiti in 1949, where she was invited to receive the Medal of Honor and Merit, which was Haiti's highest civilian honor. Then, in 1952, at the age of 76, she finally fulfilled her dream of going to Africa as part of a delegation to Liberia from President Harry Truman. While there, she was also awarded Liberia's highest medal, which was the Order of the Star of Africa.
- [31:57]
Holly Fry
Mary McLeod Bethune retired as President of Bethune Workman College in 1948 and as President of the National Council of Negro Women, or NCNW in 1949. She had been writing extensively for newspapers, journals and magazines, and she continued to do this after her Retirement from other more active roles. This included writing a regular column for the Chicago Defender.
- [32:23]
Peter Tilden
In 1953, she established the Mary MacLeod Bethune foundation on the Bethune Cookman campus to house her papers and to continue her work and legacy. She also gave her on campus home, which she called the Refuge, to the Foundation.
- [32:39]
Holly Fry
Mary MacLeod Bethune died of a heart attack at home on May 18, 1955 at the age of 79. She was buried on the campus of Bethune Cookman University. Two days later, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about her in her My Day column. Roosevelt described Bethune as having a deep religious faith that was both a weapon and a shield and as thinking that God would hear her prayers if the things she was asking for were good. In Roosevelt's words, quote, she helped herself and the Lord helped her. This mirrored something that Bethune had liked to say about herself, which is that I have faith in God and Mary Bethune.
- [33:20]
Peter Tilden
Before her death, Bethune had written what she called her last will and testament. This is not a legal document, but a reflection on her work and what she felt she was leaving to the world. This was published in Ebony magazine in August of 1955 and has been widely reprinted since then. She wrote about realizing that death would overtake her before the greatest of her dreams could be realized. That being, in her words, quote, full equality for the Negro in our time. Her last will and testament described her thoughts on leaving a legacy involving things like love, hope, racial dignity, and a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow man. It's a really beautiful essay and you can find it online at the Bethune Cookman University website and in many other places.
- [34:12]
Holly Fry
During her lifetime, Mary MacLeod Bethune was awarded 11 honorary degrees, including nine honorary doctorates. She had become known across the US as the first lady of the Struggle, or the first lady of Negro America. In 1973, she was inducted into the National Women's hall of Fame. A year later, a statue of her was unveiled at Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C. commissioned using funds raised by the NCNW, it depicts her with two children. She's holding her cane in one hand. She had a whole collection of them because she thought they conferred dignity. Or as she phrased it, it gave her swank. This was the first memorial to a black person in a public park in.
- [34:56]
Peter Tilden
Washington, D.C. bethune was also on a postage stamp in 1985, making her the second black woman to be depicted on a U.S. postage stamp. Her townhouse in Washington, D.C. that had served as the headquarters for the NCNW became Mary MacLeod Bethune Council House part of the national park system in 1995. The council house is also home to the National Archives for Black Women's History, and the NCNW still exists today. Her former home on the Bethune Cookman University campus is also now the Mary MacLeod Bethune Foundation National Historic Landmark.
- [35:36]
Holly Fry
On January 13, 2022, a statue of her was placed in the National Statuary hall in Washington, D.C. replacing a statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith as one of the two statues from the state of Florida. She is sculpted in white, wearing academic garb with a mortarboard with a cane in one hand and a black rose in the other. She had started referring to her students as black roses after seeing some growing in a Swiss garden. This sculpture was made by Nilda Comas, the first person of Puerto Rican descent to sculpt a statue for the National Statuary hall collection.
- [36:15]
Peter Tilden
Both the monument in Lincoln park and the statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection reference Bethune's last will and testament. The Lincoln Park Memorial has a bronze band that runs around the base, reading quote, I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you also a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow man. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people. And then the statue in the National Statuary hall has a stack of books at her feet and the one on top with the visible cover says I leave you on the COVID and then the spines reference the things that she left. That's Mary McLeod Bethune.
- [37:08]
Holly Fry
She's amazing.
- [37:09]
Peter Tilden
She's really, truly amazing. I also have some listener mail from Kyle. Kyle wrote, hi Holly and Tracy. You two do such a fantastic job. I've never felt the need to write in I was listening to the first part of Ely S. Parker and as you were talking about him living along the grand river and working with the Army, I was driving over the grand river in Kitchener, Ontario. It felt like a sign that I should email my two favorite history teachers and let them know how much I appreciate the content and lessons you put out each week. I also wanted to mention briefly the history of Kitchener, which you both might find interesting. Prior to World War I, it had a very large German population and was named Berlin. Obviously this wasn't a good look for the town and it had an amusing naming vote. During this period, there was also an army recruiting officer that formed a gang of youths to intimidate enlistments and a stolen bust of Kaiser Wilhelm. I doubt any of this would make a good episode, but I think it has the charm to make a segment on a Six Impossible Stories episode. Thanks so much for all the content and making my drive more enjoyable. Here is your pet tax Odin, all gray, no teeth, one eye. Odin is a great name for a one eyed animal. Jellybean, white and gray ham, all black bagel, obnoxiously cute little kitten. All the best Kyle. So yes, we have four very adorable pictures of very adorable animals, babies. I looked a little bit into this whole renaming of Berlin into Kitchener story and it does seem like it was a wild ride. So I don't know, maybe it will be a Six Impossible Episodes one day. Maybe not, who can say? But I did amuse myself reading about it this morning. It is hard to say which of these cats I think is the cutest cat.
- [39:15]
Holly Fry
I mean there's something about a one eyed like, you know, just a cat that's got a little bit of a scruffy look is great.
- [39:22]
Peter Tilden
Yeah. Well, and then since Odin is all gray, no teeth, one eye. I also have a fondness my cats do have some teeth. They both have fewer teeth.
- [39:33]
Holly Fry
Right.
- [39:33]
Peter Tilden
Than they started with because they are both apparently genetically prone to some dental problems, regardless of how much work we put into dealing with that.
- [39:45]
Holly Fry
At our house we had two littermates. We still have Ozzel. His littermate clearly had a different dad than him because he got the genetic bad teeth situation and Ozzel has never had a tooth issue. And I'm like yeah.
- [40:03]
Peter Tilden
Yeah. So thank you again so much for this email, Kyle. If you'd like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're a history podcast@iheartradio.com you can subscribe to the show also on the iheartradio app or wherever else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [40:41]
Jason Alexander
I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together our mission on the really Know really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum a failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer though, to really know and Register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition. Sign Jason Bobblehead the really no really Podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Trimarchy.
- [41:14]
Holly Fry
And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.
- [41:21]
Jason Alexander
Each season we explore a new theme, from poisoners to art thieves.
- [41:26]
Holly Fry
We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.
- [41:32]
Jason Alexander
And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.
- [41:39]
Holly Fry
Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.