Born in South Carolina in 1875, Mary Bethune became a pioneer in the education of Black students and an active supporter of African American women's rights nationwide. While we couldn’t find evidence of her living in Virginia, she purchased a home across the Potomac in Washington, D.C. Now known as the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, her home became the first location of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) headquarters. It also put her near the White House, where she worked with presidents including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Bethune died in 1955, but her impact on the Old Dominion State still reaches far and wide. The Mary Bethune Office Complex in Halifax was initially built as a school for Black children in the area and currently serves as a space for local branches of the Virginia Department of Health and Virginia Department of Social Services, the local school board office, a voting location, and more. The buildin...