By Lonnie Dawkins
I have been fascinated by the works of Mary McLeod Bethune since I first read about her in high school. When I went to college in the 70s and we had a chance to name the building that housed our Black Student Union, it was Mary McLeod Bethune’s name that I pushed to have placed on the location. She had done so much for education.
I visited the statue not long ago on a beautiful afternoon and took a photo. The inscription on the statue, “Let her works praise her” was more than appropriate.
The words come from her “Legacy: My Last Will and Testament,” published in Ebony Magazine in 1955. Go to the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site to obtain a copy and take a tour of the first national headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc.
Lonnie Dawkins