Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, Director of Negro Affairs ... Unlike her parents and 16 siblings, Mary Jane McLeod was born free. Both her mother and father, Patsy and Samuel McLeod, had been enslaved ...

Mary McLeod Bethune, pictured in the 1920s, when her school became a co-ed institution and she became the president of the National Association of Colored Women. Chicago History Museum / Getty ...

Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, Director of Negro Affairs ... Unlike her parents and 16 siblings, Mary Jane McLeod was born free. Both her mother and father, Patsy and Samuel McLeod, had been enslaved ...