(through Gritted Teeth) Sometimes What's Good For Your Mental Health Isn't Another Do Nothing Day Or

Mary McLeod Bethone with National Youth Administration youth, image here.

Mary McLeod Bethune to Return to Capitol Hill (as an impressive addition to Statuary Hall)

By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

We continue our celebration of Black History Month (Feb) and Women's History Month (March) with Civil Rights icon and DC power broker extraordinaire Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955).

Dr. Bethune will soon join the Old Boys Club on Capitol Hill (90 of the 100 statues there are of men), as an impressive 3 ton, 11 foot statue in the Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Created by sculptor Nilda Comas, the statue's pedestal reads: “Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it may be a diamond in the rough.” Women’s History Month bonus! Comas will be the first Latina artist to have a sculpture in the National Statuary Hall.

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born in South Carolina in 1875, the 15th of 17 children to former slaves Samuel and Patsy McLeod. She was a passionate educator, community organizer, presidential advisor, Civil Rights and women's rights activist, decades-long public servant (60 years), and patriot, in addition to mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her long list of achievements include:

1st Black woman to lead a federal agency.

1st Black women with a university founded in her name.

Founder of the National Council of Negro Women to advocate for and advance rights for Black women, their families and communities.

Leader of FDR's unofficial "Black Cabinet." Used this position to creating jobs for Blacks in the federal government and New Deal agencies.

As Director of Negro Affairs, she was the highest paid Black government employee in 1939—with a $5,000 salary (equivalent to $100,000 today.

VP of the NAACP in 1940, a position she held for the rest of her life.

Helped establish the Women’s Army Corps (1942) and ensured it was racially integrated.

Archivist and chronicler of Black women's history.

Bethune was the only Black woman at the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945.

Despite the attitude of some employers in refusing to hire Negros to perform needed, skilled services, and despite the denial of the same opportunities and courtesies to our youth in the armed forces of our country, we must not fail America and as Americans, we must not let America fail us.

Her life was celebrated with a memorial statue in Washington DC in 1974, and a stamp in 1985.

“We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.”

Bethune and Hoover President Hoover invited her to the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, and then appointed her to a commission to plan a “National Memorial Building” in DC “as a tribute to the Negro’s contribution to the achievements of America.” Congress did not back the project and private fundraising also failed. More than 80 years later, this vision became reality when the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in DC.

Bethune and FDR In 1935, President Roosevelt invited her to DC to serve as a Special Advisor to the National Youth Administration, and then named her National Youth Association Director of Negro Affairs, making her the first Black woman to lead a federal agency. During World War II she advocated for African American women to be allowed to serve in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WACS) and Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES).

Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt

None of us certainly can say that as yet we have perfect democracy, nor even the democracy that Abraham Lincoln and others of our great men envisioned. But I for one am proud that our country could produce a Mrs. Bethune. Your achievements are a tribute to our nation even more a tribute to your own individual spirit and effort. Eleanor Roosevelt.

Portrait of Mary McLeod Bethune, NARA ID 559194. From the Harmon Foundation, a nonprofit, private foundation for African art. More online.

Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt and others at the opening of Midway Hall, "one of two residence halls built by the Public Buildings Administration of Federal Works Agency for Negro government girls..." May 1943, NARA ID 533032.

Eleanor Roosevelt receives Mary McLeod Bethune Human Rights Award from Dorothy Height, National Council of Negro Women President, 11/12/1960, NARA ID 196283.

In her last will and testament from 1955, Dr. Bethune wrote:

I leave you hope. The Negro’s growth will be great in the years to come. Yesterday our ancestors endured the degradation of slavery, yet they retained their dignity. Today, we direct our strength toward winning a more abundant and secure life. Tomorrow, a new Negro, unhindered by race taboos and shackles, will benefit from more than 330 years of ceaseless struggle. Theirs will be a better world. This I believe with all my heart. Correspondence Between Harry S. Truman and Mary McLeod Bethune, Truman Library,

See also:

Before Kamala: Black Women in Presidential Administrations, Rediscovering Black History

Official Personnel Folder for Mary McLeod Bethune, NARA ID 158329664.

Mary Bethune: Adviser to Presidents, Hoover Heads blog

Providing a New Deal for Young Black Women: Mary McLeod Bethune and the Negro Affairs Division of the National Youth Association, Rediscovering Black History.

Featured NARA public program: Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

Mustering Out: the Navy’s First Black Yeowomen, Rediscovering Black History

See also: The original 19th Amendment, now on view in the exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, through April 10th.

The Outbursts of Everett True was a comic strip that ran in papers from 1905 to 1927, wherein the aforementioned Everett True regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude. Men have not only been taking up too much room on public transport for about as long as public transport has existed, but the people around them have been irritated about it for at least a hundred years. The next time someone tries to claim that manspreading is a false phenomenon, please direct them to this strip so that Everett True can correct their misconceptions with an umbrella upside the head.

The fact that nobody is talking about Secret’s new commercials pisses me off

a few things to keep in mind as you talk about the current situation with roe v wade:

women are not the only people who can get pregnant, and therefore are not the only people who get abortions or the only people affected by restrictions to abortion access — sincerely, a man with a uterus

the recent legislation against trans people transitioning, particularly as it relates to trans men and transmasc people, has been justified by the politicians supporting it using the argument that transitioning jeopardizes our reproductive potential, which they see as more important than our actual lives. if you support the legislation against us or have been silent about it, you cannot claim to be fighting for reproductive rights. you don’t get to only care about it when it affects you — if you let them get away with that rhetoric against trans people, you give them the power to use it against you. if you can’t stand in solidarity with us, you will end up standing against yourself

please don’t forget us in these conversations, and don’t be silent about the attacks on our bodily autonomy

all of this is connected — criminalizing transition, overturning roe v wade, it’s all working toward the same goal. if you care about one part of it, you have to care about all of it, or any efforts against it will fail

if you don’t care enough about us to fight our oppression for our sake, do it because you cannot fight against your own oppression without fighting ours too

hi all, palestine’s going through a mass genocide right now and really needs help, here are a few ways you can do that

palestine children’s relief fund: provide urgent humanitarian care for children in gaza

anera: provide on-the-ground emergency relief

united nations relief and works agency: food assistance and emergency physical+mental help

medical aid for palestinians: emergency relief for women and children, psychosocial support, disability help, other medical needs

doctors without borders: medical teams on the ground treating injured palestinians as needed

feel free to add on in the notes, notify me if any of the fundraisers listed arent necessary/actually helpful to donate to, and let me know if anything needs added on/modified

as always, if you cant donate then please share and spread awareness

Chills. I can't imagine my own high school showing up like this less than a decade ago to protest disgusting legislation like Florida's Don't Say Gay bill. The support Gen Z shows for the LGBTQ community is breathtaking.

The fight goes on. Keep it up.

For years I would look at posts and questionnaires about neurodivergence that takes about being so focused on something that you forgot to eat and be like, "Couldn't be me. Being hungry is so uncomfortable! Your stomach is growling and cramping? How do you ignore that?"

Then someone informed me that neurotypical people have a whole bunch of "hungry" sensations before they get to that point.....