‘I am engaged in a Mission work…’: Mary McLeod Bethune to Booker T. Washington (1902)

“Honored Sir: I hope a note of this kind may not greatly surprise you, as a man in your sphere must expect such. I am engaged in a Mission work in this town and I greatly desire your interest in it. It is an Interdenominational work therefore has no support. It is a work that is most sadly needed to be done, and it takes great sacrifices to get it in shape. I have rented a room where I gather the poor and neglected children and teach them daily. Aside from this I do general city mission work, the jail work included.

Now I would like to ask you, would you recommend this humble work to some friend asking their assistance? Would you yourself make a donation toward helping us secure an organ for the Mission room? Do you know any friend who would even send a few clothing to be used for the poor? God has wonderfully blessed you and used you and I know He will be pleased to have you lend your influence towards the sustenance of this work. I trust you may consider well before answering. Very Respectfully, (Mrs.) Mary McLeod Bethune.”-“From Mary McLeod Bethune to Booker T. Washington,” Palatka, Florida, November 3, 1902

In this 1902 letter written to Booker T. Washington, Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the now Bethune Cookman University located in Dayton Beach Florida, petitions Mr. Washington for support for her work at her university. (Mr. Washington’s personal correspondence contains many similar requests for support during his tenure when he not only served as principal and president of Tuskegee Institute but also considered by many the leader of the national African American community. His closest rival perhaps being W.E.B. Du Bois before his passing in 1915.)

All the same, while many persons seeking Washington’s assistance—including presidents—were very much concerned with obtaining funds to support their institution or programs in a variety of ways, here is a rare request made by a fellow principal and president to Mr. Washington that sought support for the ‘missional’ work of the institution beyond the institutional community.

Consistent with the founding of Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Girls in 1904 and most institutions of the period—particularly HBCUs—Mrs. McLeod Bethune’s missional philosophy encompassed a tangible expression of its faith-based mission in “missional work,” “jail work,” and “teaching” to the “poor and neglected children.” Yet, equally consistent, such work had very little or no “support.” And Mrs. McLeod Bethune’s appeal to Booker T. Washington was made with the hopes that his efforts on behalf of other HBCUs and African American communities similar to the building of the Rosenwald schools throughout the rural South and the Carnegie buildings (libraries) built on several HBCU campuses might be extended to this “mission work.”

Mr. Washington had clearly supported Mrs. McLeod Bethune for he had paid the institution a visit and spoke to a gathering of Presbyterians in March 1912 to support her efforts. Beyond this, Mrs. McLeod Bethune roundly heralded that Tuskegee and Booker T. Washington was the model for the founding of her institution. All the same, there is no recorded response from Washington to this 1902 request and in a similar request made by Mrs. McLeod Bethune made in 1915–the last year of Mr. Washington’s life—he acknowledged not being able to grant the request owing to the “many demands there are upon my personal purse.” In spite of this, we can plausible deduce from their relationship that Mrs. McLeod was certainly someone whose work Booker T. Washington shared a deep and lasting affinity towards in part because of its primary impetus upon reformation efforts directed within the African American community.