One Out of Seventeen

Destination Freedom. Destination Freedom dramatization of the liars of those who contributed to the great democratic heritage of the American Negro people is brought to you by Station WMAQ. Today, Destination Freedom tells the story of the great Southern educator, Mary McLeod Bethune.

Later in the program, Mrs. Bethune herself will speak to you. But now let us hear her story in a chapter titled, One Out of Seventeen. The year was 1935, and the new man in the White House was putting together a new deal.

He was puzzled over a name the First Lady had given him. Mr. Roosevelt called an aide. He called me the President. Yes. What do you know of a merry MacLeod Bethune? Bethune? No one knows anything of her except my wife.

Mrs. Roosevelt recommends that a Mrs. Mary McCloud buffoon is the one for me to appoint to help direct education in the National Youth Administration. I've got to know something about her. Yes, that should be easy to find out, sir. Look up her record. Start from the beginning. Don't leave out anything. Is that clear?

Yes, sir. Very well. But the Secretary looked in the records of Columbia, Basler, Chicago, Ohio, and found no trace of a Bethune or a Merri McCloud. For her life had begun 60 years earlier in South Carolina, where the scars of the Civil War were still fresh and bitter.

And wearing the McCloud family, there were 17 children. When the sun rose and the summer, it saw 17 hands working in the cotton fields. and Farmer MacLeod made 18. Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam! Hey, how do you expect us to get in the cotton when you want in certain every minute?