Mary McLeod Bethune was born in 1875 in South Carolina to former slaves. She was one of 17 children and was the only child in her family to go to school. She attended college in North Carolina and then Chicago. After college she returned to the south and began her career as an educator. She founded what is now Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Florida. Mary was an activist and advisor to several U.S. Presidents, most notably Franklin D. Roosevelt, for whom she was a special advisor on minority affairs. In 1973, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.