By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Three meters high. Larger than life.
That surely describes the person in history you admire most. He was a giant among men. Their deeds were greater than anyone in their time and place could have imagined. You think a lot about that, and the rest of their story. Like in A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit by Noliwe Rooks, is there more to learn?
Bethune sat up and said to the organizer, “My name is Mrs. Bethune.”
Rooks says it was unusual for a black woman to demand to be called by a name of her own choosing. Bethune’s doing so is just one of the things that has stuck with Rooks.
Bethune was her parents’ fifteenth child and the first born free. That wasn’t her last “first”: She was the first black woman to found a hospital for black Floridians and the first black woman to start an HBCU for young black women in the eastern United States. Rooks says Bethune came up with the idea of the Tuskegee Airmen; she was a founder of several civil rights organizations and served on the boards and committees of other organizations; she was a teacher who taught literacy classes for black adult voters in the South; and she opened Florida’s first beach exclusively “for blacks.”
Rooks says her grandparents knew Bethune and that while researching this book, their image of her completely changed. Bethune was more than an activist – she was also a dreamer and “the first lady of black America.”
Here’s something you won’t see often in this column: “A passionate mind on a tireless quest” isn’t long enough. Not nearly.
Author Noliwe Rooks draws readers’ attention to the story of Mary McLeod Bethune, but there could have been more. We get a nice, if scattered, list of Bethune’s works and accomplishments, but one may feel that the list is somehow incomplete. Even Rooks’ thoughts and the stories of her own ancestors are so good that one leaves something to be desired.
If only this book were longer.
That means you’ll devour everything here: the stories, the stunning achievements, and the lingering sense that Bethune never felt finished, like there was always more to do. Like Rooks, you might find that this, and Bethune, stick with you for a while.
This book will definitely make you want to know more about this talented, ambitious and brilliant woman. What you will find here is a little lacking in substance, but nonetheless, as an account of the greatness of a woman’s achievements, A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit is a “10.”
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If you’re interested in even more unique history, look for “On a Move: Philadelphia’s Notorious Bombing and a Native Son’s Lifelong Battle for Justice” by Mike Africa, Jr. It’s the story of MOVE, a black civil rights organization, and the eleven people killed in a police bombing in 1985. One of those affected was Africa, whose parents were incarcerated, and who remembers the bombing and the questions surrounding it. This is a deeply moving story that sheds light on a little-discussed chapter of history.
