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The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)

Stanford-Randle, Greer Charlotte, PhD
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0138-7847
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1510931464259225

Abstract Details

2017, Ph.D., Antioch University, Leadership and Change.
The dissertation is a deep study of an iconic 20th century female, African American leader whose acclaim developed not only from her remarkable first generation post-Reconstruction Era beginnings, but also from her mid-century visibility among Negroes and some Whites as a principal spokesperson for her people. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune arose from the Nadir- the darkest period for Negroes after the Civil War and three subsequent US Constitutional Amendments. She led thousands of Negro women, despite social adversity, to organize around their own aspirations for improved social and material lives among America’s diverse citizens., i.e. “the melting pot.” The subject of no fewer than thirty-two dissertation studies, numerable biographies, innumerable awards, and namesake educational institutions, Bethune ascended to public leadership roles. Her renown of the first five decades of the 20th century is reconstructed to be less enigmatic for people of African descent, and more visible for other mainstream Americans. Remarkably, she employed a uniquely crafted philosophy of interactional destiny for the world’s “races” anchored in her brand of Christian evangelism. Bethune’s uniquely early feminist worldview and strategies for inter-racial cooperation, different than the worldviews of some of her contemporaries, achieved much social capital and opened doors of opportunity for herself and countless others through a brief federal government position, and organized women’s work before 1955. Since much of her meta-narrative was riddled with hagiography and myth, this study has fettered out some myths and eradicated some of the hagiography. The study combines primary sources, secondary sources, photo-ethnography, and hermeneutics to illuminate another pathway for future leadership students and organization developers to appropriate aspects of Bethune’s 20th century leadership performance as their own. Unintended to merely applaud Dr. Bethune’s leadership performance, this study is discourse anchored in the researcher’s belief and scholarship that leadership is both teachable and learnable. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, http://etd.ohiolink.edu
Philomena Esssed, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Kevin McGruder, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
African American Studies; African Americans; American History; Black History; Black Studies; Organizational Behavior; Social Structure; Spirituality; Womens Studies
African Americans; African American Studies; Black History; Leadership; Womens Studies; American History; Females; Race; Feminism; Photo-Ethnography; Hermeneutics; Mary McLeod Bethune; African American Women Leaders; Biography

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Stanford-Randle, PhD, G. C. (2017). The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) [Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1510931464259225

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Stanford-Randle, PhD, Greer. The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955). 2017. Antioch University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1510931464259225.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Stanford-Randle, PhD, Greer. "The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)." Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1510931464259225

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

antioch1510931464259225
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© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Antioch University and OhioLINK.