She had $1.50, five girls, her son, and a dump. Twenty-three years later, she was sitting in the Oval Office advising the President of the United States.

Meanwhile, her school kept growing. In 1923, it merged with the Cookman Institute for Men, becoming co-educational. By 1931, it was accredited as Bethune-Cookman College, with Mary as president—one of the few women in the world serving as a college president.

What started with $1.50 and six students was now a fully accredited institution worth over $1 million, with a hundred faculty members and more than a thousand students.

But Mary McLeod Bethune wasn’t finished building.

She became president of the National Association of Colored Women, leading voter registration drives despite racist attacks and intimidation. In 1935, she founded the National Council of Negro Women, uniting twenty-nine different organizations to fight for civil rights, end segregation, and push for international cooperation.

Then came an invitation that would change everything.

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