TODAY IN PARK HISTORY

Mary McLeod Bethune
courtesy of the National Park Service

MAY 18

1955
Mary McLeod Bethune passes away at the age of 78 in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was here in 1904 that she had founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls, which later merged with the Cookman Institute to become Bethune-Cookman College.

The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, located in Washington, DC, commemorates the life of Mary McLeod Bethune and the organization she founded, the National Council of Negro Women.