Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, in Washington, D.C., was the first headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) . Educator Mary McLeod Bethune founded NCNW in 1935 to help improve the lives of African American women, their families, and their communities. Bethune worked to improve educational opportunities for Black people and fought for the rights of African American women.
Bethune came to Washington, D.C., in 1936 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. The National Youth Administration was a federal agency that provided job training for unemployed young people. In 1943, Bethune and NCNW purchased a three-story Victorian town house to serve as the organization’s national headquarters. The house, which became known as Council House, also served as Bethune’s Washington residence for various periods from 1943 to 1949. In 1949, Bethune returned to her permanent residence in Daytona Beach, Florida. Council House remained the headquarters of NCNW until 1966, when the organization relocated to another site in Washington, D.C.
In the conference room at Council House, NCNW members met to discuss important topics, including integration of Black people into public schools and the desegregation of Washington restaurants. Prominent visitors to the house included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt , civil rights leader Mary Church Terrell , and Indian diplomat Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit .
The Bethune Council House features exhibits on Bethune and NCNW, including photographs and original furniture. A carriage house on the property houses the National Archives for Black Women’s History. It has a large collection of correspondence, photographs, speeches, and other materials relating to Mary McLeod Bethune, NCNW, and other African American women’s organizations.
The United States Congress designated the Council House site as a national historic site in 1982. The site became an official unit of the National Park System in 1994.
