Carolina QuotesPower, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force.
Mary McLeod Bethune
Carolinian
Source
"My Last Will and Testament," Ebony, August 1955; text via the Florence County Museum, Florence, South Carolina
- form
- essay
- work
- My Last Will and Testament
- year
- 1955
Cite this record
“Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unw…” Mary McLeod Bethune. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-764F1F4F59. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/764f1f4f59
More from Mary McLeod Bethune
Despite many crushing burdens and handicaps, I have risen from the cotton fields of South Carolina to found a college, administer it during its years of growth, become a public servant in the government of our country and a leader of women.
A great deal of this new freedom rests upon the type of education which the Negro woman will receive. Early emancipation did not concern itself with giving advantages to Negro girls. The domestic realm was her field and no one sought to remove her. Even here, she was not given special training for her tasks. Only those with extraordinary talents were able to break the shackles of bondage. Phyllis Wheatley is to be remembered as an outstanding example of this ability — for through her talents one was able to free herself from house hold cares that devolved upon Negro women and make a contribution in literary art which is never to be forgotten. The years still re-echo her words. “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain/May be refined, and join the Angelic train”
In no field of modern social relationship has the hand of service and the influence of the Negro woman been felt more distinctly than in the Negro orthodox church. It may be safely said that the chief sustaining force in support of the pulpit and the various phases of missionary enterprise has been the feminine element of the membership. The development of the Negro church since the Civil War has been another of the modern miracles. Throughout its growth the untiring effort, the unflagging enthusiasm, the sacrificial contribution of time, effort and cash earnings of the black woman have been the most significant factors, without which the modern Negro church would have no history worth the writing.