Did you know the City of Daytona Beach is home to Bethune-Cookman College?
Originally founded in 1904 by Mary McLeod Bethune as the Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Girls, the school merged with Jacksonville's Cookman Institute in 1923.

Mary McLeod was the 15th of 17 children born to former slaves Samuel and Patsy Macintosh McLeod in South Carolina. She married Albertus Bethune in 1898 and moved to Florida in 1902. Mary McLeod Bethune was president of Bethune-Cookman College until 1942. During her time there she built the college into a nationally accredited and well-known institution.

Dr. Bethune's accomplishments reached well beyond the college. She was a member of President Hoover's Committee for Child Welfare, president of the National Association of Colored Women, director of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and the first black woman to head a federal office among other achievements. Her home, "The Retreat," is located on the college campus and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

Reprinted from Quality Cities March/April 2006
Photo of Mary McLeod Bethune courtesy of the Florida Memory Project

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