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Learn about the extraordinary life and accomplishments of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune—a prominent educator, presidential advisor, womanist, activist and leader who fiercely believed in education as a pathway to liberation. The daughter of formerly-enslaved parents, she later went on to found Bethune-Cookman University. During her long career of public service, she became one of the earliest black female activists to help lay the foundation to the modern civil rights movement. Among her many achievements, she was the founder and first president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and an internationally recognized leader in struggle for civil, women's, and human rights. Bethune achieved her greatest recognition at the Washington, DC townhouse that is now a National Historic Site called the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House. Discover its significance as the first headquarters of the NCNW from which strategies and programs were developed to advance the interests of African American women. Our presenter is Matthew Knudson Park Guide at the Council House.