Mary McLeod Bethune Council House

Born to former slaves a decade after the end of the Civil War, educator and political leader Mary McLeod Bethune grew up in South Carolina as the 15th of 17 children. Despite a childhood of poverty and hard work, she walked for miles each day to attend the one-room schoolhouse established for African-American children in her community. She became the only child in her family to receive an education and began working as a teacher early in her career, eventually founding a school for African-American girls in Daytona, Florida, and serving as president of the National Association of Colored Women. In 1935, she became an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on minority affairs and founded her own civil rights organization, the National Council of Negro Women. It is the former headquarters of her organization that is now preserved at the historic site, along with details of her extraordinary life and achievements.