Whereas Mary McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina, and she was the first member of her family, including all of her 16 siblings, born free following the conclusion of the Civil War; Whereas beginning at a young age, Mary McLeod Bethune became engaged with learning and teaching after receiving an opportunity to attend Trinity Presbyterian Mission School in her hometown, and her dedication was evidenced through attending as many classes as she could and teaching her parents and siblings what she had learned; Whereas Mary McLeod Bethune was awarded a scholarship allowing her to enroll at the then-Scotia Seminary for Girls in Concord, North Carolina, from which she graduated in 1893, and she went on to continue her studies at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago; Whereas upon graduating from the Moody Bible Institute, Mary McLeod Bethune became a teacher and taught at schools in Georgia and South Carolina before moving to Florida to teach at the Palatka Mission School; Whereas through observing the burgeoning Black population in the area prompted by labor needed for railroad construction, Mary McLeod Bethune decided to follow through with her dream of opening her own school; Whereas Mary McLeod Bethune bought a small cottage in Daytona Beach to allow for the opening of the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904 and through her commitment to fundraising, the school’s enrollment grew from 5 to 250 students in just 2 years; Whereas the school continued to grow, which eventually resulted in its merger with the Cookman Institute for Men in Jacksonville to form Bethune-Cookman College, where she later served as president; Whereas Mary McLeod Bethune’s advocacy continued with her founding of the National Council of Negro Women and her appointment as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt