On July 10, 1875, two years before the end of Reconstruction, Mary Jane McLeod was born to two former slaves, Samuel and Patsy Macintosh McLeod, near Maysville, South Carolina. She was the fifteenth of seventeen children; most of her brothers and sisters were born in slavery. Once her family was reassembled from various plantations after slavery, her parents acquired five acres of land and built a family home known as the "Homestead". Her mother continued to work for her former owner, and her father cultivated cotton on their land. Young Mary Jane, as was the custom in the cotton regions of South Carolina, was in the fields along with the adults. In 1904 Mary came up with the idea to establish Cookman College. She opened up a college for Blacks. She was the principal of the school. The reason people admire her is because she inspired a girl who lived in the children home who didn't think it could come true. She was awarded a gold medal for thinking up a good idea for blacks to get an education. Mary helped people reach their goals and have successful businesses. Mary helped over 9,500 students graduate from college. Though Mary made little money, she started paying for desks and other great books the school needed. Mary attended conferences in the White House, which discussed the problems that Blacks were facing in education and in society. Eventually they agreed to give her more supplies and money for the school. Mary went to jails and sang them songs of inspiration for the Blacks who were incarcerated. She would also go to shelters and feed the homeless. She wouldn't rest until a Black person could have the same opportunities as any other person. Mary would not refuse to take children in when she discovered parents could not afford to feed them. She also opened a hospital for blacks. She worked under the administrations of presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Theodore Roosevelt on child welfare, housing employment and education. Mary helped the children by working as a Director of National Youth Administration. She helped many kids believe nothing was impossible. Mary went to jails and sang them songs of inspiration for the blacks who were incarcerated She also organized a Sunday school program for prisoners and she encouraged people to "invest in human souls". She realized that Africans needed Christ as much as Africans needed schools. In June 1936, she was assigned director of Negro affairs and became the first black women to serve as head of a federal agency. |
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