An Exploration of Generational Freedom in Daytona Beach, Florida ca. 1905

📸: “Mary McLeod Bethune with a Line of Girls from the School,” ca. approx. 1905 sourced from the Library of Congress.

Mirror Moment(s): Generational Freedom

Happy Black History Month y’all 🤪!

Today’s archival image features the legendary Mary McLeod Bethune. According to the Library of Congress, the source for this image, Mary was born on July 10th, 1875 to two previously enslaved parents in Mayesville, South Carolina. After receiving her higher education Mary moved to Daytona Beach, Florida in 1904 with the mission of starting her school. 

This image has many horizontal lines that provide great depth to the picture. Despite the image being two-dimensional, these lines make the viewer feel as though they are in the frame continuing to look down the road. The first horizontal line is of the barbed wire fence behind the girls and Mary. Then, when the fence can no longer be seen the lofty line is exchanged for the solid horizontal line of wooden structures. Lastly, with the fence & wooden structures serving as a guideline, we see the final horizontal lines of the girls & Mary standing on the horizontal dirt road. 

As the line of girls gets longer it slightly curves as their heads & upper body lean to make sure they can be seen in the frame. Because this picture was taken in 1905, this is most likely one of the first classes to pass through Mary’s Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Negro Girls. For me, lines are also associated with lineages & this picture embodies that sensibility. Here is a snapshot of a young Mary creating her lineage through the founding of her school. 

I also see this image as Mary caring for her younger self. There are so many younger versions of oneself that you carry with you throughout life. In some ways, these young girls were Mary at some point in her life: a Southern Black girl with a desire to learn, be herself, have the autonomy to make choices, & walk through any door she chooses. Therefore, while Mary is establishing an educational lineage she is also actively passing on knowledge to empower the next generation to be freer. 

Toni Morrison is also someone who taught & assisted people with the intention to make someone freer. Toni reached back for Mary’s lineage in her practice & left us with the synchronistic quote below.

“I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.” - Toni Morrison