Mary Jane McLeod Bethune rose from poverty to become one of the nation’s most distinguished African leaders and the most prominent Black woman of her time. Her life encompassed three different careers: as an educator, she was the central figure in the creation of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida; as founder and president of the National Council of Negro Women, she was a leading force in developing the Black Women’s Organization Movement; and in the political realm, she was one of the few Blacks to hold influential positions in the federal bureaucracy during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. While she gave counsel to presidents and made connections with America’s elite, she remained readily accessible to average men and women and the college students that she mothered and mentored. She never used her access to people of power and privilege to benefit herself, but instead sought access for those shut out of opportunities in society, enlisting leaders of government and industry to support her vision for her school in Daytona Beach, and for social justice and positive change for all. Her vision lives on at the school she founded, which continues to sustain her legacy of faith, scholarship and service.