Written for the Atlanta Daily World, by Dr. Christina Grant and Dr. Aleesia Johnson
“If it were not for Black women, Black people would not have been educated in this country.”- Dr. Sharon Contreras, Superintendent, Guilford County Schools.
On a Friday morning in June, 13 Black women who serve as school superintendents across the United States gathered in front of a monument. [They’d] made a very intentional decision to come together in tribute to one of our foremothers whose path shaped the way for so many of us – Dr. Mary McCleod Bethune.
If you don’t know Dr. Bethune’s name, you should. Because of her contributions to the country, she is the first African American represented in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol building. Her statue was revealed just earlier this month. She was a civil rights advocate, specifically for the rights of Black women, a presidential advisor, and – most inspiring to all of us – an educator, who founded the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training Institute for Negro Girls on October 3, 1904 “with $1.50, vision, an entrepreneurial mindset, resilience and faith in God.” The school later merged with all-male Cookman Institute to become today’s Bethune-Cookman University.
Read the full story here.
