"If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving. I think I have spent my life well. I pray now that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of Peace, Progress, Brotherhood, and Love." 

The Department of African American Studies honors Mary McLeod Bethune, Policy Advisor for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who introduced the widespread hiring discrimination against Black Americans and prompted FDR to sign Executive Order 8802 banning racial discrimination in the defense industry.

This contributed to the rise of the 600,000 African American women known as "Black Rosies" who migrated during The Great Migration to work under war factories and administrative offices in the North. This opportunity led to economic empowerment for Black women escaping sharecropping in the South. In her life, she advised 5 presidents and was the only Black woman at the founding of the United Nations. With the money she raised by baking sweet potato pies, she built a training school for Black girls titled the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls which would later merge into Bethune-Cookman College. She founded the National Council of Negro Women and fought against voter disenfranchisement for the Black community through voter registration drives.

Her legacy is honored by the University of Maryland under the Mary McLeod Bethune Award which awards a graduating senior who has contributed to the Black community. The call for Student Leadership Awards Nominations are active until February 10, 2023.