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Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
Founder and President (1904-1942; 1946-1947)
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune left a heritage in the college she founded. She also left her Last Will and Testament, an everlasting and priceless document of challenge, hope, and responsibility for African-Americans and other people, which represents the essence of Transformative Leadership:
…I leave you love. Love builds. It is positive and helpful. It is more beneficial than hate.
…I leave you hope. The Negroes’ growth will be great in the years to come. Theirs will be a better world. This I believe with all my heart.
…I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. As long as Negroes are hemmed into racial blocks by prejudice and pressure, it will be necessary for them to band together for economic betterment.
…I leave you a thirst for education. Knowledge is the prime need of the hour&. If we continue in this trend, we will be able to rear increasing numbers of strong, purposeful men and women, equipped with vision, mental clarity, health and education.
…I leave you a respect for the uses of power. We live in a world, which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom.
…I leave you faith. Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.
…I leave you racial dignity. I want Negroes to maintain their human dignity at all costs. We, as Negroes, must recognize that we are the custodians as well as the heirs of a great civilization.
…I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with our fellow men. The problem of color is world-wide. It is found in Africa and Asia. Europe and South America. I appeal to American Negroes - North, South, East and West - to recognize their common problems and unite to solve them.
…I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people. The world around us really belongs to youth, for youth will take over its future management. Our children must never lose their zeal for building a better world.
…If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving. As I face tomorrow, I am content, for I think I have spent my life well. I pray now that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of Peace, Progress, Brotherhood and Love.
The Mary Mcleod Bethune Foundation: A National Historic Landmark
Built in 1905, the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation is the home in which Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune lived and died. The Foundation was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1975. On July 10, 1977, her 102nd birthday, a second marker was erected at the home by the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in cooperation with the Amoco Foundation, and it is the 94th United Methodist Historic Site. The home currently serves as a museum and is visited by elementary, middle and high school students, as well as Florida tourists who are able to capture the greatness of this remarkable woman and to receive inspiration from the legacy she willed to the American public.
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