Bethune was the fifteenth of seventeenth children born to Sam and Patsy McIntosh McLeod. She grew up in poverty, everyone in the family worked. Bethune helped her mother’s work, but she fascinated about the toys and books. One day she opened a book, she didn’t know how to read. It was the best moment, she decided to start study and she was inspired to learn. Bethune became the only one child in her family to go to the school when a missionary opened a school nearby for African-American children. Every day she walked five …show more content…
The school was started with only five students. Additionally, Bethune had very little money to maintain the school, she used boxes and packaged crates for desks and charged $.50 a week for tuition. Although the students had to pay tuition, she never turned away any child whose parents were unable to pay. She helped to grow the school to more 250 students in next year. In 1923, the school was combined with the cook man institute for men. From that, she was continued to develop as Bethune cook-man University. The college was one of the few places that African- American students could pursue a college