Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately 42 miles (67.6 km) northeast of Orlando, 90 miles (144.8 km) southeast of Jacksonville, and 231 miles (371.8 km) northwest of Miami. It is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropolitan area which has a population of about 600,000 and is also a principal city of the Fun Coast region of Florida.
Bethune–Cookman University is a private historically black university in Daytona Beach, Florida. Bethune–Cookman University is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The primary administration building, White Hall, and the Mary McLeod Bethune Home are two historic locations.
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal Aframerican Women's Journal, and presided as president or leader for a myriad of African American women's organizations including the National Association for Colored Women and the National Youth Administration's Negro Division.
The Jackie Robinson Ballpark is a historic baseball field in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. It is located at 105 East Orange Avenue on City Island, in the Halifax River.
Daytona Stadium, is a 9,601-seat multi-purpose stadium in Daytona Beach, Florida, built in 1988 and home to the Bethune–Cookman University Wildcats football team. It is also used to host home games for the Mainland High School and Seabreeze High School football teams. The stadium is also known as Larry Kelly Field, a name honoring former Daytona Beach Mayor Lawrence J. Kelly.
The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site preserves the house of Mary McLeod Bethune, located in Northwest Washington, D.C., at 1318 Vermont Avenue NW. National Park Service rangers offer tours of the home, and a video about Bethune's life is shown. It is part of the Logan Circle Historic District.
Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site at 1538 9th Street NW, in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., preserves the home of Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950). Woodson, the founder of Black History Month, was an African-American historian, author, and journalist.
White Hall is a historic site on the campus of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. It is located at 640 Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard. On July 15, 1992, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Harriette Vyda Simms Moore was an American educator and civil rights worker. She was the wife of Harry T. Moore, who founded the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Brevard County, Florida. The murder of the Moores was the first assassination to happen during the Civil Rights Movement and the only time both a husband and a wife were killed for their activism.
John Lajba, is an American sculptor who lives in Omaha, Nebraska. He is known for his work in creating sculptures of historical and sports figures, and creates the annual Harley J. Earl Trophies presented to the winner of the Daytona 500.
Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial is a bronze statue honoring educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune, by Robert Berks.
The Bethune–Cookman Wildcats women's basketball team represents Bethune–Cookman University in the sport of basketball. The Wildcats competes in the NCAA Division I and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). They play their home games in Moore Gymnasium on Bethune–Cookman University campus in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Edward H. Armstrong won the Daytona Beach, Florida mayor's office five times during the 1920s and 1930s where Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, poll taxes and the Great Depression complicated social, political and economic conditions. He controversially gained the support of black voters in exchange for community aid and infrastructure improvements. Today, he is remembered as the legendary political boss of Daytona Beach who indisputably found a way to gets things done and was one of the most colorful and headstrong figures in the city's history.
Richard Vernon Moore Sr. was an American educator, principal, and university president. He served as the third president of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida (1947–1975). Moore was also the state of Florida's first African-American Supervisor of Secondary Schools for Negros.
Frances Reynolds Keyser was an American suffragist, clubwoman, and educator. She succeeded Victoria Earle Matthews as superintendent of the White Rose Mission in New York City, and was academic dean of the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute alongside school founder Mary McLeod Bethune.
Patrick Henry is a Democratic politician who served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 26th District, which stretches from Daytona Beach to DeLand in northern Volusia County, from 2016 to 2018.
The statue honoring civil rights and women's rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune was unveiled in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., representing Florida in the National Statuary Hall Collection on July 13, 2022. This makes her the first black American represented in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Charles Phillip Bailey Sr. was a U.S. Army Air Force officer and one of the Tuskegee Airmen's most decorated combat fighter pilots. He was Florida's first African American fighter pilot. He flew 133 missions over Europe and North Africa, and was credited with shooting down two enemy aircraft.
Daytona Normal and industrial School, originally Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls was established in Daytona Beach, Florida by Mary McLeod Bethune in 1904. Bethune was active in voter registration and campaigning for women's suffrage. Her school was reportedly threatened by the Ku Klux Klan and she stood vigil to protect it.
