Lunch and Learn returns with special guest Noliwe Rooks\, author of "A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vi sion of Mary McLeod Bethune" in conversation with the Prince George's Coun ty Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System.
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About the book:
\n"An intimate and searching account of th e life and legacy of one of America's towering educators\, \;a \;w oman who dared to center the progress of Black women and girls \;in&nb sp\;the larger struggle for political and social liberation When Mary MacL eod Bethune died\, many of the tributes \;in \;newspapers around t he country said the same thing: she should be on the "Mount Rushmore" of B lack American achievement. Indeed\, Bethune is the only Black American who se statue stands \;in \;the rotunda of the U.S. Capital\, and yet for most Americans\, she remains \;a \;marble figure from the dim past. Now\, seventy years later\, Noliwe Rooks turns Bethune from stone to flesh\, showing her to have been \;a \;visionary leader with less ons to still teach us as we continue on our journey towards \;a \; freer and more just nation. Any serious effort to understand how the Black Civil Rights generation found role models\, vision\, and inspiration duri ng their midcentury struggle for political power must place Bethune at its heart. Her success was unlikely: the 15th of 17 children and the first bo rn into freedom\, Bethune survived brutal poverty and caste subordination to become the first \;in \;her family to learn to read and to atte nd college. She gave that same gift to others when \;in \;1904\, a t age 29\, Bethune welcomed her first class of five girls to the Daytona\, Florida school she herself had founded. \;In \;short order\, the school enrolled hundreds of children and eventually would become the unive rsity that bears her name to this day. Bethune saw education as an essenti al dimension of the larger struggle for freedom\, vitally connected to the vote and to economic self-sufficiency. She played \;a \;big game\ , and \;a \;long game\, enrolling Eleanor Roosevelt\, Harry Truman \, Franklin D. Roosevelt\, and many other powerful leaders \;in \; her cause. Rooks grew up \;in \;Florida\, \;in \;Bethune's shadow: her grandparents trained to be teachers at Bethune-Cookman Univer sity\, and her family vacationed at the all-Black beach that Bethune helpe d found \;in \;one of her many entrepreneurial projects for the co mmunity. The story of how-in \;a \;state with some of the highest lynching rates \;in \;the country-Bethune carved out so much space \, and how she catapulted from there onto the national stage\, is\, \; in \;Rooks' hands\, \;a \;moving and astonishing example of th e power of \;a \;will and \;a \;vision that had few equals . Now\, when the gains and losses \;in \;the long struggle for ful l Black equality \;in \;this country feel particularly near-and ce ntered on the state of Florida-\, it is an enormous gift to have this bril liant and lyrical reckoning with Bethune's journey from one of our own gre at educators and scholars of that same struggle." -provided by the catalog .
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About the author:
\nAn interdisciplinary sc holar\, Noliwe Rooks is the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Afri cana Studies\, and the chair of Africana Studies at Brown University. Her work explores how race and gender both impact and are impacted by popular culture\, social history and political life in the United States. She work s on the cultural and racial implications of beauty\, fashion and adornmen t\; race\, capitalism and education\, and the urban politics of food and c annabis production.
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The author of six books and numerous art
icles\, essays and Op-Ed&rsquo\;s\, Rooks has received research funding fr
om the Ford Foundation\, the Mellon Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Scho
ol among others. She lectures frequently at colleges and universities arou
nd the country and is a regular contributor to popular outlets such as&nbs
p\;The New York Times\, \;The Washington Post\, \;The Chronicle of
Higher Education\, Time Magazine \;and \;NPR.