The Black Rose: Mary McLeod Bethune’s Educational Garden
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
May 18, 1955
On this day, we bid farewell to Mary McLeod Bethune (books about this person), an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist whose life bloomed from the most humble of beginnings into a garden of hope and opportunity for countless others.
Can you imagine the world into which Mary was born?
The fifteenth child of her family, Mary was the first to draw breath as a free person.
Her parents, newly liberated from the shackles of slavery, had known the pain of seeing most of their older children sold to other masters. Mary's father, Samuel, had even worked to "buy" his bride.
In this context, Mary's birth represented a new dawn, a promise of freedom that her siblings had never known.
Mary's journey from the cotton fields to the halls of academia is nothing short of remarkable.
Picture, if you will, a young girl, the first in her family to attend school, her eyes wide with the wonder of learning.
Fast forward to 1904, and we find Mary in Daytona, Florida, planting the seeds of what would become her life's work.
With determination that would put even the hardiest perennial to shame, she established the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls.
Within two years, 250 students were blossoming under her care.
Can you envision the scene?
Students using sticks of charcoal for pencils, mashed elderberries for ink, and cardboard boxes for tables and chairs. It's a testament to Mary's ingenuity and the students' thirst for knowledge that they thrived in such conditions.
But Mary's vision extended beyond makeshift classrooms. With fifteen dollars in coins, she put a down payment on a swampy piece of land known as Hell's Hole.
Doesn't it stir the imagination?
A garbage dump transformed into a beacon of education.
Over the main doors, students would read "Enter to Learn" as they arrived, and "Depart to Serve" as they left. What powerful messages to shape young minds!
As her school grew and merged to become Bethune-Cookman College (B-CC), Mary reflected:
When I walk through the campus, with its stately palms and well-kept lawns, and think back to the dump-heap foundation, rub my eyes and pinch myself. And I remember my childish visions in the cotton fields.
Isn't it inspiring to see dreams take root and flourish?
Mary's influence extended far beyond the campus.
She often spoke of a "people garden," a place where individuals of all colors grew together in harmony. Initially disheartened by the absence of a black blossom to represent her race, Mary's perspective changed during a visit to Europe.
Can you picture her delight upon discovering black flowers in Holland and Switzerland?
She returned with black tulip bulbs and ordered 72 black roses for the B-CC grounds.
This gesture earned her the nickname "the black rose," and in turn, she lovingly called her B-CC students her "Black Roses."
What a beautiful metaphor for the cultivation of young minds!
On this day in 1955, Mary McLeod Bethune's earthly journey came to an end.
But her legacy, like a well-tended garden, continues to grow and inspire.
Her will concluded with words that still resonate today:
I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you racial dignity...
As we tend to our own gardens, both literal and metaphorical, let us remember Mary McLeod Bethune.
May we cultivate hope, nurture dignity, and always strive to create a world where people of all colors can grow together in harmony.