Daytona Beach leaders, students celebrate Mary McLeod Bethune's 148th birthday

Speaking on the city's Riverfront Esplanade next to Mary McLeod Bethune's 13-foot-tall bronze statue, Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry said Bethune did everything "with a spirit of tenderness, compassion" and love.

"But I think most important, she approached things from a perspective of excellence," Henry said. "If she embraced it, you can believe and rest assured that she was going to give her all to ensure that it succeeded."

Community leaders who gathered on Monday to celebrate what would have been Bethune's 148th birthday said her impact is still felt in many ways in Daytona Beach and beyond. Bethune lived from July 10, 1875, to May 18, 1955.

Among the crowd and speakers were leaders from the city and the Volusia County African American Leadership Council and Bethune-Cookman University, which Bethune founded.

The university describes her as "one of America’s most inspirational daughters. Educator. National civil rights pioneer and activist. Champion of African American women’s rights and advancement. Advisor to Presidents of the United States. The first in her family not to be born into slavery, she became one of the most influential women of her generation."

Organizers handed out copies of Bethune's last will and testament along with a piece of sweet potato pie, boxed and wrapped with ribbon.

Daisy Grimes, chief administrative officer for the Volusia County African American Leadership Council, recalled what she said is an often-cited fact in Bethune's history: she built the school "with a dollar and a half, faith in God and sweet potato pies that she would sell on the tracks to the men who were working on the railroad."

Bethune started what became Bethune-Cookman University on Oct. 3, 1904; it was called the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, according to the university.

In Daytona Beach, Bethune's achievements were "profound and many," Grimes said.

"They included prohibiting segregation on Bethune-Cookman University campus, working to ensure that her community here had indoor plumbing and electricity, assisting with the integration of minor league baseball, and working with the local housing authority to build the Pine Haven (affordable housing) project," Grimes said.

A marble statue of Bethune was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol in July of 2022. Bethune's bronze statue was placed on the Riverfront Esplanade in August.

Bethune's statues show her in an academic gown in honor of educational achievements, a walking stick in her right designed in the same fashion as the one given to her by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; and a black rose in her left hand ― she called her students black roses, and to her, the black rose symbolized unity.

Students also celebrated Bethune on Monday. Children from the summer camp at the Julia T. & Charles W. Cherry Sr. Cultural and Educational Center held up signs and read quotes from Bethune's last will and testament, each reading a sentence one by one: "I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you respect for the uses of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people."

'A glorious day': Statue of trailblazing educator and civil rights activist Bethune unveiled in U.S. Capitol

Henry said he hopes the event will always have a space for children, and he spoke about Bethune's focus on investing in future generations.

"Let's always remember that Dr. Bethune recognized what we all must recognize: that (in) life, though it may seem as though it's relevant to our moment and our time, only what you give to the future will last," he said.

― Reporter Eileen Zaffiro-Kean contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Mary McLeod Bethune's birthday celebrated on Daytona Beach riverfront