Mary McLeod Bethune, born July 10, 1875, in Maysville, South Carolina, was one of 17 children of Samuel and Patsy McLeod, former slaves. She founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, now Bethune-Cookman College, in 1904 and served as its president from 1904 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1947. Her service included president of the National Association of Colored Women, director of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration from 1936 to 1944, consultant to the U.S. Secretary of War for selection of the first female officer candidates, consultant on interracial affairs and understanding at the charter conference of the United Nations, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She drew national political attention by working to register black voters, opening the college’s library as the first desegregated library in Florida, and advising Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, and Truman on black affairs. In Daytona Beach, newlyweds Jackie and Rachel Robinson stayed in the home of black politician Joe Harris and his wife, Duff, on Spruce Street, and had dinners at Bethune-Cookman College; Rachel Robinson later said that compared to adjacent towns, Daytona Beach stood out as a kind of political oasis.