Mary McLeod Bethune, known as the ‘First Lady of Negro America,’ also sought to unify the African diaspora

  When I first landed an internship as an archives technician at the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House-National Historic Site – the D.C. home of the woman who founded Bethune-Cookman University – I didn’t see a strong connection between the college founder’s life and the rest of the African diaspora.