Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida. She attracted donations of time and money, and developed the academic school as a college. It later continued to develop as Bethune-Cookman University. She also was appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was known as "The First Lady of The Struggle” because of her commitment to bettering African Americans. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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As I give, I get.
Cease to be a drudge, seek to be an artist.
Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.
Faith, courage, brotherhood, dignity, ambition, responsibility- these are needed today as never before.
Forgiving is not about forgetting, it's letting go of the hurt.
I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity.
If our people are to fight their way up out of bondage we must arm them with the sword and the shield and the buckler of pride.
If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander.
If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.
Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.
Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.
Love builds. It is positive and helpful. It is more beneficial than hate.
Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living.
Personally and racially, our enemies must be forgiven. Our aim must be to create a world of fellowship and justice where no man's skin, color or religion, is held against him.
The Freedom Gates are half-ajar. We must pry them fully open.
The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.
There is a place in God's sun for the youth 'farthest down' who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it.
We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive foce.
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(Today is also the birthday of Bertrand Russell and Tina Fey).
Categories: Mary McLeod Bethune, Quotes of the day
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