Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

Hello and welcome back to the show. This is part two of our coverage of Mary McLeod Bethune.

Let's just take a little recap of what we covered in part one. We took Mary Jane McLeod from the cotton fields of South Carolina to school in North Carolina

and then onto college in Chicago in her quest to become a missionary in Africa. We were crushed with her when her dream was denied because of the color of her skin and we cheered Mrs. Bethune on as she worked towards her new dream, a school for African American girls in Daytona, Florida, which she built from a dollar 50, a dream, the power of friendship and sheer grit.

And with that dream realized she just dreamed bigger. When we left her, she had just built a hospital on the grounds of her school, a hospital that both served and employed both black and white doctors and nurses in the segregated South.

And she had stepped onto an expanded dream when she met some women at the National Association of Colored Women who are encouraging her work and she is far from done.

By 1911, the first class was ready to graduate from eighth grade. She had informally expanded the school, but she felt that it was time to make it real.

So she went to her board of trustees and asked if she could add a high school program that was accredited and they denied her.

But she's not somebody that's going to give up very easily and she basically said, fine, if you are going to tie my hands, I'll just start over again.

And James Gamble, who you talked about him in the last episode knew that wasn't a bluff and eventually her request was approved and not only did she start a high school program, but she began an in a home education program for community members that were need of some type of education or advice.

It's 1914 and Europe is on the brink of war and the Red Cross is gearing up for action all across the world, but its activities do not will not aren't planning to seek the investment of Americans of color in any way.

Now how about this for a friend of a friend influence, a senator who was on Mrs. Bethune's school board of trustees and who had been taken by her non-segregationist

stance, I mean, he's from Connecticut. So you know, it's not a given, but it's not as big of a surprise as if he'd been a senator from the South.

Anyway, he recommended that she go to Washington, DC and make the case for non-segregation in the Red Cross.

Me go to Washington, DC. Yes, you also the meetings in two days.

So please hurry also another one of your supporters is close personal friends of the chairman of the American Red Cross.

So we'll get him to send you an introduction.

Oh, also the chairman of the Red Cross is the vice president of the United States. So we'll see you in Washington in two days.

Bye.

So Mrs. Bethune went to her closet. Now this is a woman who's dressed nice her entire career, but she's looking in there and she says,

what am I going to wear to speak in Washington? This is a really big deal.

So just like when the whole village gave its best things and wishes to send her to school all those years ago,

...