“I think God picked her to lead, guide, and protect her people,” surmised Phyllis Johnson of Fairfax, Virginia, as she strolled through the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House-National Historic Site in Washington, DC, on Bethune’s 150th birthday. The house was once home of the National Council of Negro Women. The Florida native also once lived in the home in the Logan Park neighborhood while her permanent residence was on the campus of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Bethune was an educator, a women’s rights, youth rights, and civil rights advocate, and a trailblazer in shaping government policies. She was an advisor to four presidents, co-founder of what is now Bethune-Cookman University, and the only 1 of 17 siblings to get a formal education. To get an education, she walked 10 miles from her home to school.

In 1935, Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in New York City, bringing together representatives from 28 different organizations to work towards improving the lives of Black women and their communities. In the 1990s, the headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women relocated to Pennsylvania Avenue, situated centrally between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. Bill and Camille Cosby donated $1.8 million to the effort.

Although her focus was on American Black women, Bethune was conscious of her African heritage. “We must make this national body of colored women not merely a national influence, but a significant link between peoples of color throughout the world,” she declared. When she visited the epicenter of the African liberation struggle in 1949, the Haitians awarded her the Haitian Medal of Honor and Merit. In 1952, Liberians awarded her the Star of Africa. Happy Birthday.