Mary McLeod Bethune: “What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?”

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: What international events might have made the topic of Bethune’s remarks of particular interest to her radio listeners?
• 2.: What was the Black Cabinet? What role did it play in the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt?
• 3.: Read this document in conjunction with Marian Anderson’s My Lord, What a Morning. Imagine a discussion between Bethune and Anderson about the position and progress of African Americans in the 1930s. Would they have seen matters in the same way? How might their views have differed?
• 4.: Imagine that Bethune was in a position to defend the viewpoints either of John P. Davis in “A Black Inventory of the New Deal” or of Robert Clifton Weaver in “The New Deal and the Negro: A Look at the Facts.” Which side of the debate would she most likely have supported? Why?
• 5.: Imagine that you attend a school where you are required to use desks made of old packing crates, similar to the kinds of facilities Bethune had when she formed the Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. What would your reaction be? What do you think the reaction of your parents or guardians would be? What lessons can be learned today about school funding as well as about the deep desire for education a century or more ago?