Bethune-Cookman University

History

Mary McLeod Bethune opened the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls on October 3, 1904, with six students — five girls and her own son. She had no building, no land, and almost no money. She made ink from elderberries. She burned logs to make charcoal pencils. She sold sweet-potato pies to workers on nearby construction sites to raise tuition.

By 1923, the school had grown sufficiently to require a merger. Bethune's institution merged with the Cookman Institute of Jacksonville, Florida, to form the Daytona Cookman Collegiate Institute. It became Bethune-Cookman College in 1931, accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as a junior college in 1931 and as a four-year college in 1947. It achieved university status in 2004, its centennial year.

Mary McLeod Bethune was not only an educator. She was one of the most powerful Black political figures of the twentieth century. She served as an adviser to four U.S. presidents, founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, and served as director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration under Franklin Roosevelt — the highest federal office held by a Black woman to that point in American history.

Bethune-Cookman has faced significant governance and accreditation challenges in recent years. The university's board of trustees and administration were the subject of extensive scrutiny following financial and leadership controversies in the late 2010s, and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) placed the institution on probation over its finances and governance. Bethune-Cookman subsequently stabilized: it emerged from probation with its SACSCOC accreditation intact. After a stretch under three interim leaders, Dr. Albert D. Mosley was formally installed as the university's eighth president effective July 1, 2025 — the institution's first permanent president in four years. The university enrolled approximately 3,100 students in fall 2025, in step with a broader resurgence in HBCU enrollment, and has continued to consolidate its finances and governance. Its resilience through these challenges reflects the strength of its founding legacy.

Mary McLeod Bethune: The Woman Who Built It

Mary Jane McLeod was born in 1875 in Mayesville, South Carolina, the fifteenth of seventeen children of formerly enslaved parents. She attended the Scotia Seminary and Moody Bible Institute before launching her school in Daytona Beach. Her political influence grew alongside her institution: she advised Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, and Truman. She testified before Congress, organized Black women voters, and challenged segregation at every level. A bronze statue of Bethune stands in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C. — the first monument to a Black American and to a woman on public land in the nation's capital, dedicated in 1974. She died in 1955.

Notable Alumni

A representative selection. Alumni records are verified against institutional and published sources. Unverified entries are flagged explicitly — we do not fabricate records.

Source notes: Rackham Holt, Mary McLeod Bethune: A Biography (1964); Joyce A. Hanson, Mary McLeod Bethune and Black Women's Political Activism (2003); Bethune-Cookman University institutional archives; National Park Service, Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site.