Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site
Pioneering educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune became a special advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and led voter registration drives amid racist attacks. In 1924, she was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and became the founding president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in 1935. Bethune lived at the Washington, D.C. townhouse (now the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site), which was also the first headquarters of the NCNW. From that house, Bethune and the NCNW initiated programs to uplift African-American women, children, and families.
