Once hailed as the most influential Black woman in the U.S., Mary McLeod Bethune has received little scholarly attention in the histories of the period. McCluskey and Smith examine the complex career of this leader, demonstrating her role as stateswoman, politician, educational leader and visionary. A unique blend of original documentation and scholarship, highlighting over 70 documents from 1902 to 1955.
About the Author
Audrey Thomas McCluskey is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies at Indiana University and has had a long association the National Women's Studies Association. She has published widely on Bethune. Articles have appeared in Signs, Florida Historical Quarterly, and The Western Journal of Black Studies.
Elaine M. Smith, on the history faculty at Alabama State University, is an authority on Bethune and has published articles in the Journal of Negro History and Black Women in America: an Historical Encyclopedia . She also has written the introduction to the Guide to the Mary McLeod Bethune papers.
