W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson and Ralph Bunche all spoke at the church during the first part of the 20th century.
Mary McLeod Bethune, founding member of the National Council of Negro Women and who had given the convocation speech at Clarke’s graduation from KSU, was instrumental in forming and recruiting for the All-Volunteer Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC).
The town was once the only beach that African Americans were permitted to use in Volusia County during the first half of the century and is named after the famous black educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College.
The defining experience of his life was when in 1961, on the West Indies' tour of Australia, he saw the film The Crowning Experience, about the life of the black American educator Mary McLeod Bethune.
Their efforts paid off in 1929, when President Herbert Hoover appointed Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, and 10 others to a commission charged with building a "National Memorial Building" showcasing African American achievements in the arts and sciences.
The title is taken from a 1940s statement made by Mary McLeod Bethune describing Paul Robeson.
Queen Mary | Mary | Mary, Queen of Scots | Mary I of England | Mary J. Blige | Mary Shelley | Mary Poppins | Mary Pickford | Mary of Teck | RMS Queen Mary | Mary Magdalene | Mary Robinson | Mary Landrieu | Assumption of Mary | The Mary Tyler Moore Show | Mary (mother of Jesus) | Mary-Kate Olsen | The Jesus and Mary Chain | McLeod's Daughters | Mary Chapin Carpenter | Mary Tyler Moore | Mary Stuart | Mary Hopkin | Peter, Paul and Mary | Mary Lou Retton | Mary II of England | Mary Froning | Mary Black | Mary Cassatt | Hail Mary |
The CAA, from its beginning in 1941, received the support of mainstream activists and liberal intellectuals like Franz Boas, E. Franklin Frazier, record producer John H. Hammond, Mary McLeod Bethune ( from the National Youth Administration) and Rayford Logan.
Martin and his wife Joanne opened the museum on July 9, 1983, with only four wax figures: Frederick Douglass, Mary McLeod Bethune, Harriet Tubman, and Nat Turner.