National Association of Colored Women

In 1896, the National Association of Colored Women was formed to promote the needs of black women.
Bethune served as the Florida chapter president of the NACW from 1917 to 1925. She worked to
register black voters, which was resisted by white society and had been made almost impossible by a
variety of obstacles in Florida law and practices controlled by white administrators. She was threatened
by members of the resurgent Ku Klux Klan in those years.[9][13] Bethune also served as the president of
the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs from 1920 to 1925, which worked to improve
opportunities for black women.

She was elected as national president of the NACW in 1924. While the organization struggled to raise
funds for regular operations, Bethune envisioned its acquiring a headquarters and hiring a professional
executive secretary; she implemented this when NACW bought a property at 1318 Vermont Avenue in
Washington, DC. She led it to be the first black-controlled organization with headquarters in the capital.

Gaining a national reputation, in 1928 Bethune was invited to attend the Child Welfare Conference
called by Republican President Calvin Coolidge. In 1930 President Herbert Hoover appointed her to the
White House Conference on Child Health.[18]

Southeastern Association of Colored Women's Clubs

The Southeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (eventually renamed as the Southeastern
Association of Colored Women’s Clubs) elected Bethune as president after its first conference in 1920 at
the Tuskegee Institute. They intended to reach out to Southern Women (specifically white women) for
support and unity in gaining rights for black women. The women met in Memphis, Tennessee to discuss
interracial problems. In many respects, all of the women agreed about what needed to be changed, until
they came to the topic of suffrage. The white women at the conference tried to strike down a resolution
on black suffrage. The SACWC responded by issuing a pamphlet entitled Southern Negro Women and
Race Co-Operation; it delineated their demands regarding conditions in domestic service, child welfare,
conditions of travel, education, lynching, the public press, and voting rights.[19] The group went on to
help register black women to vote after they were granted suffrage a few months later after passage of
the constitutional amendment.[20] Within the state, however, and in other southern states, black men
and women were largely disenfranchised by discriminatory application of literacy and comprehension
tests, as well as requirements to pay poll taxes, lengthy residency requirements, and the need to keep
and display records.

National Council of Negro Women

In 1935 Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in New York City, bringing together
representatives of 28 different organizations to work to improve the lives of black women and their
communities. Bethune said of the council:
"It is our pledge to make a lasting contribution to all that is finest and best in America, to cherish and
enrich her heritage of freedom and progress by working for the integration of all her people regardless
of race, creed, or national origin, into her spiritual, social, cultural, civic, and economic life, and thus aid
her to achieve the glorious destiny of a true and unfettered democracy."[21]

In 1938, the NCNW hosted the White House Conference on Negro Women and Children, demonstrating
the importance of black women in democratic roles. During World War II, the NCNW gained approval for
black women to be commissioned as officers in the Women's Army Corps. Bethune also served as a
political appointee and the Special Assistant to the Secretary of War during the war.[13]

In the 1990s, the headquarters for the National Council for Negro Women moved to Pennsylvania
Avenue, centrally located between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. The former headquarters,
where Bethune also lived at one time, has been designated as a National Historic Site.

National Youth Administration

Mary McLeod Bethune enters the White House c. 1950.

The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a federal agency created under Roosevelt's Works
Progress Administration (WPA). It provided programs specifically to promote relief and employment for
young people. It focused on unemployed citizens aged sixteen to twenty-five years who were not in
school.[22] Bethune lobbied the organization so aggressively and effectively for minority involvement
that she earned a full-time staff position in 1936 as an assistant.

Within two years, Bethune was appointed to position of Director of the Division of Negro Affairs, and as
such, became the first African-American female division head.[23] She managed NYA funds to help black
students through school-based programs. She was the only black agent of the NYA who was a financial
manager. She ensured black colleges participation in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which
graduated some of the first black pilots.[13] The director of the NYA said in 1939: "No one can do what
Mrs. Bethune can do."[24]

Bethune’s determination helped national officials recognize the need to improve employment for black
youth. The NYA’s final report, issued in 1943 stated,

"more than 300,000 black young men and women were given employment and work training on NYA
projects. These projects opened to these youth, training opportunities and enabled the majority of them
to qualify for jobs heretofore closed to them."[22]
Within the administration, Bethune advocated for the appointment of black NYA officials to positions of
political power. Bethune’s administrative assistants served as liaisons between the National Division of
Negro Affairs and the NYA agencies on the state and local levels. The high number of administrative
assistants composed a work force commanded by Bethune. They helped gain better job and salary
opportunities for blacks across the country.[23] During her tenure, Bethune also pushed federal officials
to approve a program of consumer education for blacks, and a foundation for black crippled children.
She planned for studies for black workers’ education councils. National officials did not support these
due to inadequate funding and fear of duplicating the work of private non-governmental agencies.[23]
The NYA was terminated in 1943.

Black Cabinet

Mary McLeod Bethune (left) and Eleanor Roosevelt (center), 1943

Bethune became a close and loyal friend of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. At the Southern Conference
on Human Welfare in 1938, held in Birmingham, Alabama, Eleanor Roosevelt requested a seat next to
Bethune despite state segregation laws. Roosevelt frequently referred to Bethune as "her closest friend
in her age group."[25] Bethune told black voters about the work being done on their behalf by the
Roosevelt Administration, and made their concerns known to the Roosevelts. She had unprecedented
access to the White House through her relationship with the First Lady.[13]

She used her access to form a coalition of leaders from black organizations called the Federal Council of
Negro Affairs, but which came to be known as the Black Cabinet. It served as an advisory board to the
Roosevelt administration on issues facing black people in America. It was composed of numerous
talented blacks, mostly men, who had been appointed to positions in federal agencies. This was the first
collective of black people working in higher positions in government. It suggested to voters that the
Roosevelt administration cared about black concerns. The group gathered in Bethune's office or
apartment and met informally, rarely keeping minutes. Although as advisers they did not directly create
public policy, they were a respected leadership among black voters; they influenced political
appointments and disbursement of funds to organizations that would benefit black people.[26][page
needed]

Civil Rights

In 1931 the Methodist Church supported merging of the Daytona Normal and Industrial School and the
Cookman College for Men into Bethune-Cookman College, established first as a junior college. Bethune
became a member of the church but it was segregated in the South. Essentially two organizations
operated in the Methodist denomination. Bethune was prominent in the primarily black Florida
Conference. While she worked to integrate the mostly white Methodist Episcopal Church, South, she
protested its initial plans for integration because they proposed separate jurisdictions based on
race.[27]
Bethune worked to educate both whites and blacks about the accomplishments and needs of black
people, writing in 1938,

If our people are to fight their way up out of bondage we must arm them with the sword and the shield
and buckler of pride – belief in themselves and their possibilities, based upon a sure knowledge of the
achievements of the past.[28]

A year later she wrote,

Not only the Negro child but children of all races should read and know of the achievements,
accomplishments and deeds of the Negro. World peace and brotherhood are based on a common
understanding of the contributions and cultures of all races and creeds.[29]

On Sundays she opened her school to tourists in Daytona Beach, showing off her students'
accomplishments, hosting national speakers on black issues, and taking donations. She ensured that
these Community Meetings were integrated. A black teenager in Daytona at the time later recalled:
"Many tourists attended, sitting wherever there were empty seats. There was no special section for
white people."[24]

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public
schools was unconstitutional, Bethune defended the decision by writing in the Chicago Defender that
year:

There can be no divided democracy, no class government, no half-free county, under the constitution.
Therefore, there can be no discrimination, no segregation, no separation of some citizens from the
rights which belong to all.... We are on our way. But these are frontiers which we must conquer.... We
must gain full equality in education ...in the franchise... in economic opportunity, and full equality in the
abundance of life.e[30]

Bethune organized the first officer candidate schools for black women. She lobbied federal officials,
including Roosevelt, on behalf of African-American women who wanted to join the military.