An Ideological Criticism of Mary McLeod Bethunes

Democracy Speech
Mary McLeod Bethune was an icon as a political activist
and leader in the fight for racial advancement, or the race
uplift ideology. Her speech What Does American
Democracy Mean to Me? illustrates her belief in a dream
of equality promised by the Constitution. This ideological
criticism focuses on how her rhetoric reflected the time in
which she lived and offers critical insight into the
interpretation of her perception of what the world could be
and the possibility of transformation through invitational
rhetoric.
Foss (1989) notes that the rhetorical critic conveys
passion for and interest in the artifact and invites the
reader(s) to transform their lives as a result of contact with
the artifact and the critical essay (p. 26). Such is the goal of
this critical essay. In 1939, the nation heard Mary McLeod
Bethune answer the question What Does American
Democracy Mean to Me? over the airwaves.
Having been the founder of Bethune-Cookman College,
founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and
Director of the Division of Negro Affairs for the National
Youth Administration, Bethune understood the importance of
community involvement. Her generation had learned to be
civically engaged and socially responsible. Rothenbuhler
(1991) asserts communication is the beginning of
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community involvement and that community involvement

means being informed and discussing or acting on it. The
baseline of involvement is information and interaction (p.
75). Bethune communicated through her speeches to
audiences that came to form communities working for
change. Her use of
what Foss and Foss (2011) call invitational rhetoric allowed
her to reach audiences that might not have been open to
culturally challenging points of view. Some scholars have
noted her contribution to creating a world that is more
diverse today. Foss and Foss (2011) further assert that such
speakers seek not just to win an argument or to prove its
superiority, but to clarify ideas and achieve understanding
in the interaction.
The research question uses ideological criticism to
explore how race markers are used to challenge the
justification and construct of domination as the natural order.
The ideology manifest in this speech appears in a variety of
forms through the exploration of racial advancement,
transformation, community involvement, and the use of
invitational rhetoric.
The Speech and Its Context
On November 23, 1939 Mary McLeod Bethune joined a
panel of four speakers on the public affairs national radio
program Americas Town Meeting of the Air (ATMA). Denny
(1941) notes that the program was designed to enhance the
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publics interest in current events and to replicate the Town

Meetings that were held in the early days of the United
States Through the miracle of radio, the educational
aspects of the early New England town meeting have come
to life again and are functioning as a bulwark of American
democracy (p.374).
Broadcast live from New York City's Town Hall, it was
one of the first talk shows and ran from 1935 to 1956 on the
NBC Blue Network, later known as ABC Radio. George V.
Denny, Jr. was the executive director of the League for
Political Education, which produced the program. He believed
that an uninformed public is bad for democracy and that
free discussion has always been a basic function of
American democracy. Denny, also ,believed that radio
could help build democracy:
whatever other attributes we may attach to
democracy, it is certain that it presupposes a system of
universal education and the dissemination of unbiased
views and information on a basis which will permit of an
honestly informed public opinion. There are fifty million
voters upon whom we are depending to determine the
policies that will carry us through this critical period in
the worlds history. (p. 377)
Denny considered these educational programs functioned as
a stimulus for audiences. With a format that provided
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different points of view, the program attracted an audience.

As a result, the Thursday evening program became the basis
of listening groups forming all across the country. Each
speaker was given ten minutes followed by questions from a
live audience of fifteen hundred people. As Denny (1941)
noted, Informal questioning of the speakers on their
prepared speeches was new ( p. 373). With its primary
function to impart information, ATMA supplied
bibliographies and other discussion aids in the printed
record of each broadcast to encourage listeners to follow
through in their study of each subject (p.376). In 1938, an
advisory service was launched to provide items such as
handbooks for discussion leaders, background and issue
statements, speaker information as well as reading lists.
More than a thousand groups were registered with ATMA. In
addition to the registered listening groups, the American
Association of Adult Education (1938) estimated some three
thousand more groups were active.
At a time when the lynch mob ruled the South and the
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) threatened African Americans who stood
up for equal rights, this eloquent, accomplished woman was
included in a national dialogue about democracy. Pilgrim
(2000) asserted that racial segregation was the norm and
Jim Crow laws were enforced creating a racial caste
system that legitimized anti-Black racism (p. 7). Further,
there was an etiquette that accompanied these laws of the
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South. Jim Crow etiquette operated in conjunction with Jim

Crow laws (black codes) excluding Blacks from public
transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighborhoods. Even
though the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the
Constitution had granted Blacks the same legal protections
as Whites, by 1877, Southern and border states began
restricting the liberties again. In 1896, the Supreme Court
continued the undermining of Constitutional protection with
their decision to legitimize Jim Crow laws in Plessy v.
Ferguson. By 1934, the Roosevelt Administration was
beginning to take action on the race etiquette of the day,
according to Cook (1992):
E[leanor] R[oosevelt]s behavior publicly announced
that the private quarters of the White House had been
integrated. She had tea for the Hampton Institute choir,
dinner with M[ary] M[cLeod] B[ethune], lunch on the
patio with Walter White. Although the indignities of
segregation were not yet on the national political
agenda, several ceremonies upon which Americas
race etiquette depended were defied at last. (p. 161)
In order to understand more about the ideology of the
early form of civil rights called race advancement by race
leaders, it is necessary to explore this remarkable woman.
Franklin (2002) called Mary McLeod Bethune the most
influential African American woman in the twentieth century,
whose legacy is found in the fields of education,
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government, politics, economics, social activism, and

womens rights (p. 171).
Hanson (2003) describes Bethune as outspoken in her
defense of the race, particularly of black women, grounding
her philosophy in her experience as a southern black
woman (p. 19). Cook (1992) asserts that Bethune worked
to forge the new activist civil rights movement (p.160). She
worked for free and open access to equal citizenship and
organized black voters to elect officials who would address
their needs. In describing how Bethune stepped over gender
boundaries of the time, McCulsky (1999) paints the following
picture:
Bethunes personal traits included charisma and a
sense of self and mission that while admired in men, is
often feared in women. She eased those fears of overstepping invisible gender boundaries by appearing to
stay within them. This was achieved with a melodious
and cultivated speaking voice, an imposing physical
appearanceshort, stout, dark-skinned, affecting smile,
and piercing but friendly eyes and a personality that
courted conciliation rather than conflict. (p.237)
Hanson (2003) notes that Bethune believed in liberty,
personal dignity, self-respect, and the power of the ballot
(p. 22). Bethune was a pragmatic negotiator who believed in
racial pride, advancement through education, moral
strength, and community activism. Through her work with
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education, womens clubs, and politics, she reached a wide

audience. Civil rights, prejudice, and segregation themes
often appeared in her writings and speeches.
Bethune was committed to ending racial oppression
through public participation. Antebellum Black women set
the example for Bethunes generation to organize for racial
advancement (Hanson, 2003). African Americans who were
educated were expected to help all African Americans to
fight for racial equality. Group advancement was most
important; not just individual gain. Shaw (1996) calls this
socially responsible individualism, a sense of duty that
often translated to racial activism. Bethune was one of the
self-confident and outspoken southern women who became
the political and social vanguard for formal and informal
movements within the black community (Hanson, 2003, p.
23). Bethunes generation believed they had a
responsibility to the community that only they could fulfill
(Hanson, 2003, p. 24).
Bethunes relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
adds to the context. Cook (1992) credits Bethune as having
influence on First Lady Eleanor Roosevelts (ER) support for
civil rights. From their first meeting in 1927, ER was
impressed by the vigor of Bethunes feminism, her race
pride, and her compelling magnetism (p. 160). Cook also
described Bethune as a suffragist:

Mary McLeod Bethune was also a suffragist committed

to womens rights. In 1920 she organized a black
womens voter-registration drive throughout Florida in
the face of KKK terrorism. She worked closely with the
National Association of College Women until 1935,
when she helped found the National Council of Negro
Women, an alliance of twenty-nine national
organizations. (Cook, 1992, p.160)
From the chapter titled The Quest for Racial Justice,
Cook (1992) describes Bethune and her relationship with
Eleanor Roosevelt citing a sit-down dinner at the East 65 th
street home for leaders of the National Council of Women in
1927 as their first meeting. Bethune was then president of
the National Association of Colored Women. She had
described herself as the only black woman in attendance
at that meeting. She further described that she had
hesitated as she entered the dining room and that Mrs.
James (Sara Delano) Roosevelt, mother of the future
President, noticed her hesitation and walked across the room
to meet her. Bethune wrote in her diary:
That grand old lady took my arm and seated me to the
right of Eleanor Roosevelt in the seat of honor! I can
remember, too, how the faces of the Negro servants lit
up with pride when they saw me seated at the center of
that imposing gatheringFrom that moment my heart
went out to Mrs. James Roosevelt. I visited her at her
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home many times subsequently, and our friendship

became one of the most treasured relationships of my
life. As a result of my affection for her mother-in-law,
my friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt soon ripened into
a close and understanding mutual feeling (Cook, 1992,
p.159).
Cook (1992) describes how Bethune moved to the nations
capital:
When ER suggested that she come to Washington in
October 1934, Mary McLeod Bethune began a dazzling
chapter in American politics. Originally one of thirty-five
members of the National Advisory Committee of the
National Youth Administration created in 1935, she
became director of Negro Affairs for the NYA. The
acknowledged leader of the unofficial Black Cabinet,
which met each week in her home on Friday evenings
to discuss priorities and strategies, she worked to forge
the new activist civil rights movement. (p.160)
It was while serving as the Director of Negro Affairs for the
National Youth Administration that President Roosevelt asked
her to convene the Black Cabinet. As a result, she hosted
gatherings each Friday night at her house on Vermont
Avenue in Washington, DC. She was the lone woman in the
group. She and the other race leaders would discuss the
important issues taking place around the country and
prioritize and strategize actions.
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Ideological Criticism
Bethune has been identified as a feminist in her
attempt to challenge the status quo with her racial
advancement work. As a feminist, it seems proper to apply
the use of ideological criticism to analyze this speech that
answers the question: What does American democracy mean
to me? Foss (2009) notes Feminist Criticism is an ideological
criticism and that feminist critics conceptualize feminism as
the effort to eliminate relation of domination not just for
women but for all individuals (p. 213). This ideological
criticism will be used to identify race markers and how they
are used to challenge the justification and construct of
domination as the natural order.
The goal here is to identify the interests of the ideology,
i.e., a pattern of beliefs that determines a groups
interpretations of some aspect(s) of the world (p. 209).
Components of an ideology are beliefs that evaluate relevant
topics, provide an interpretation, and encourage particular
attitudes and actions (p. 210). Foss (2009) further explains,
Some ideologies are privileged over others in a culture,
and ideologies that present oppositional or alternative
perspectives on the subjects to which they pertain are
sometimes repressed. The result is a dominant way of
seeing the world or the development of a hegemonic
ideology in certain domains. Hegemony is the
privileging of the ideology of one group over that of the
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other groups. It thus constitutes a kind of social control,

a means of symbolic coercion, or a form of domination
by more powerful groups over the ideologies of those
with less power.
In other words, those with more power receive more support
along with the power to establish what is considered the
norm of society. Such control of language influences thought
and action. Foss (2009) notes that:
A hegemonic ideology provides a sense that things are
the way they have to be; it asserts that its meanings
are the real, natural ones. In a culture where the
ideology of racism is hegemonic, for example, the
privilege accorded to whites seems normal, as does the
lack of opportunity accorded the individuals of other
races. If practices in the culture concerning people of
color are questioned, the questions are viewed as
abnormal. (p.210)
Resistance to such domination is muted, thus limiting the
possible influence of change, especially during the time of
Bethunes speech. The primary goal of this ideological critic
is to uncover the ideology embedded in the nationally
broadcast speech given by one of the most well-known
African American women of her time. According to Foss
(2009), the critic seeks to explicate the role of
communication in creating and sustaining an ideologyin
this case, supporting racial advancement or civil rights for
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African Americansas well as identify whose interests are

represented. By providing a critical distance, the
relationships and the context may be changed.
History provides the perspective that allows us to
understand the importance of this speech. Given at a time
when not only were womens voices often muted, but African
American women, also, faced restricted opportunity to raise
their voices especially over national airwaves. At that time,
some 44 million Americans had radios, but how many were
in the homes of African Americans? Often the dominated
group lacks access to information and as a result, less access
to power.
Findings of the Ideological Analysis
Findings from the ideological analysis suggest that
Bethune considered American Democracy a goal, a
dream, an ideal. She believed in the promise of full
equality and had hope that it would come as noted in the
opening lines of the speech, What Does American
Democracy Mean to Me?:
Democracy is for me, and for 12 million black
Americans, a goal towards which our nation is
marching. It is a dream and an ideal in whose ultimate
realization we have a deep and abiding faith.
Ever mindful of her audience, Bethune spoke to thousands of
listeners via radio in an eloquent, Victorian voice: Clear,
strong, and educated. She made her case in a way that
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would advance her race, as she would say. Also, some

would suggest that she was given the opportunity to speak
because of her position in the Roosevelt Administration
Bethune used a variety of rhetorical strategies including
examples, description, as well as using argumentation to
advocate change. She references the opportunity her race
had been given and cites the statistics of the day to
demonstrate how that opportunity was used:
Here my race has been afforded [the] opportunity to
advance from a people 80 percent illiterate to a people
80 percent literate; from abject poverty to the
ownership and operation of a million farms and 750,000
homes; from total disfranchisement to participation in
government; from the status of chattels to recognized
contributors to the American culture.
Bethune used what Foss and Foss (2011) call invitational
rhetoric in order to be heard by a diverse audience. By
reframing the cultural message of Jim Crow, Bethune
described her dream of a world in which equality was natural
and normal. Bethune is not combative in her tone or her
words when she notes that her people have been
extended a measure of democracy and used it well to give
gifts in return to the country that she loves listing examples
of brilliant iconic poets, educators, opera divas, and
scientists:

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We have helped to build America with our labor,

strengthened it with our faith and enriched it with our
song. We have given you Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Booker
T. Washington, Marian Anderson and George
Washington Carver.
Her third claim points to the fact that equal opportunity
has not yet reached as she would say her people stating
The democratic doors of equal opportunity have not been
opened wide to Negroes. As director of the Division of
Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration under the
Roosevelt Administration from 1935 to 1944, she was the
authority and shared the statistics sternly:
In the Deep South, Negro youth is offered only onefifteenth of the educational opportunity of the average
American child.
She elaborated further with a visualization of what her
people had to endure because of their lack of equal
opportunity:
The great masses of Negro workers are depressed and
unprotected in the lowest levels of agriculture and
domestic service, while the black workers in industry
are barred from certain unions and generally assigned
to the more laborious and poorly paid work.
She describes the consequences of the lack of opportunity or
education that her people are facing every day helping her
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audience in this land of the free to see into her perception

of the world:
Their housing and living conditions are sordid and
unhealthy. They live too often in terror of the lynch
mob; are deprived too often of the Constitutional right
of suffrage; and are humiliated too often by the denial
of civil liberties.
Bethune did not share her first-hand experience with the
threat by terrorists such as the Ku Klux Klan, but even she
had had to face down the KKK. At this point, she makes her
appeal for a fundamental change to the mass audience over
the airwaves:
We do not believe that justice and common decency
will allow these conditions to continue. Our faith
envisions a fundamental change as mutual respect and
understanding between our races come in the path of
spiritual awakening.
Then she softens the blow by sharing responsibility with the
plight of her people:
Certainly there have been times when we may have
delayed this mutual understanding by being slow to
assume a fuller share of our national responsibility
because of the denial of full equality.
Offering one example after another, she proves her case that
her people are deserving of equal protection under the law
15

because they have always been there ready to fight for this
democracy:
And yet, we have always been loyal when the ideals of
American democracy have been attacked. We have
given our blood in its defense- from Crispus Attucks on
Boston Commons to the battlefields of France. We have
fought for the democratic principles of equality under
the law, equality of opportunity, equality at the ballot
box, for the guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. We have fought to preserve one nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal. Yes, we have fought for
America with all her imperfections, not so much for
what she is, but for what we know she can be.
The final appeal challenges the audience of the air to
consider a new vision. It is an appeal to invite the audience
to consider her point of view, her perception of what the
world can be if we humans decide to live and work together
for the betterment of our country:
Perhaps the greatest battle is before us, the fight for a
new America: fearless, free, united, morally re-armed,
in which 12 million Negroes, shoulder to shoulder with
their fellow Americans, will strive that this nation under
God will have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, for the people and by the
people shall not perish from the earth.
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It is clear that she wants the audience to think of a world

that includes her people as welcomed Americans working
together to make a better worldpartners in action to enjoy
equality together.
Finally, she makes clear that as a nation, the amended
Constitution has not yet provided equal protection under the
law. She calls to her audience in a rich, clear, measured,
powerful, articulate voice:
This dream, this idea, this aspiration, this is what
American democracy means to me.
The speech invites the audience to believe as she does:
African Americans deserve equal protection under the law
and to consider anything less than full equality
unacceptable. Bethune created a masterful, perfectly
executed speech appealing for race advancement latter
called civil rights. Bethune believed in equality and a
government of the people, for the people and by the
people.
Discussion
After exploring this important speech, it is clear that
race leaders worked for race advancement, which could
be interpreted as the beginning of the modern civil rights
movement. In order to change the world in which they lived,
race leaders like Bethune were civically engaged with
goals to stop the second-class citizenship of Jim Crow laws
17

which included a poll tax, and allowed lynching and other

terrorism at the hands of the KKK. The race leaders knew
that African Americans deserved to live in a country that
would enforce equal protection under the law, which was
now guaranteed by the Constitution. Instead, these
courageous leaders spoke out putting their lives under
potential threat in a country that was not yet ready to face
its hypocritical, apartheid-like society.
As one listens to Bethunes democracy speech, it is
easy to imagine her in conversation, inviting questions,
ready to answer with her strong but gentle voice as she tells
the story of her people and suggests Jim Crow must go
without specifying it. Racial dignity and the hope for racial
equality served as resources for the maintenance of the
ideology of race advancement, the early stages of the civil
rights movement. Media exposure gave access to power.
McCulsky (1999) found that newspapers were
a principal forum for public discourse. Black-owned
newspapers, in particular, assumed the full weight of
the race uplift ideology. Bethune seized that forum in an
effort to present herself as the emblematic leader of
black hope; to champion black progress, and to
dislodge rampantly negative perceptions of black
women and men in the American mind (p. 236).

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Race leaders encouraged their audiences to support

race advancement. Bethune invited audience members to
construct themselves as supporters of her world-view using
invitational rhetoric. She challenged the status quo rule of
Jim Crow and attempted to create a vision of a world that
advanced her race. By reframing the cultural message, she
described a world of equality that should be considered
natural and the norm instead of refusing to accept the
change inspired by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional
Amendments. Her democracy speech asked her audience to
see the world through her eyes for a moment. Such change
is possible when audience members are empathetic and
capable of compassionate treatment of others. Samovar and
Porter (1982) note that cultural norms permeate thought
and action, thus creating our assumptions (p. 30).
Conclusion
Bethunes speech is an inspiration to us all. Her
invitation to dialogue opens up the possibility of
conversation rather than battle. Conversation can lead to the
discovery of common ground and the hope for changing the
status quo. By reframing the discussion, Bethune invites her
audience to share her perspective. As she paints a picture of
her view of the world, the audience can visualize her pride.
Hanson (2003) noted that Bethune wrote to awaken the
moral consciousness of whites and inspire black women and
men to fight against all forms of injustice. (p.23) As an
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excellent example of invitational rhetoric, Bethunes

democracy speech shares a world-view that invites her
audience to connect, be involved, and be transformed in
order to be better able to see a new perspective. As a gifted
orator and activist, Bethunes persuasive skills helped to
launch what became the future civil rights movement.
Works Cited

Bethune, M.L. (Nov. 23, 1939). What Does American

Democracy Mean to Me? In K. Ellis and S. Smith (Eds.), Say It
Plain: Live Recordings of the 20th Century's Great AfricanAmerican Speeches. Retrieved March 2011
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspe
ech/mmbethune.html
Cook, B.W. (1992). Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1. United
States: Penguin Books.
Cook, B.W. (1992). Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 2. United
States: Penguin Books.
Denny, G.V., Jr. (1941). Radio Builds Democracy, Journal of
Educational Sociology,
14: 6, 370-377. Retrieved 6/29/2011 from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2262537.
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Foss, S.K. (1989). Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and

Practice. Long Grove, IL:
Waveland Press.
Foss, S.K. (2009). Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and
Practice. Long Grove, IL:
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Foss, S.K. and Foss, K.A. (2011). Inviting Transformation:
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Changing World, Third Edition. Waveland Press, Inc.
Franklin, VP (2002). Biography, Race Vindication, and
African American Intellectuals,
The Journal of African American History, 87:1, 160-174.
Hanson, JA (2003). Mary McLeod Bethune and Black
Womens Political Activism.
University of Missouri Press.
McCulsky, A.T. (1999). Representing the Race: May McLeod
Bethune and the Press in
the Jim Crow Era. The Western Journal of Black Studies
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Pilgrim, D. (2000). What Was Jim Crow? Ferris State

University. Retrieved June 27,
2011 http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
Rothenbuhler, E.W. (1991). The Process of Community
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Monographs, 58, March.
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