In the News: Westchester’s Black Leaders—And The Black Leaders That Inspired Them (Source: Westchester Magazine)
Source: Westchester Magazine
In honor of Black History Month, Senator Stewart-Cousinns spoke to Westchester Magazine about who inspired her, "Mary McLeod Bethune is an inspiration to me, with her remarkable life’s path and the rich legacy of education, civil rights, leadership, and political activism she left behind. With $1.50 and five students, she began a small school in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1904 that became Bethune-Cookman University.
"In 1935, she founded the National Council of Negro Women, and that same year, became the first African-American woman involved in the White House when she served as a special advisor to President Roosevelt on minority affairs. She also advised presidents Coolidge and Hoover on issues of home ownership and child welfare. Dr. Bethune recognized that power and education, when used intelligently, advanced civil rights. She was planting the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement decades before it began. Dr. Bethune inspired me to go to college, earning my degrees as an adult, while working and raising my family.”