I could see little white boys and girls going to school every day, learning to read and write; living in comfortable homes with all types of opportunities for growth and service and to be surrounded as I was with no opportunity for school life, no chance to grow – I found myself very often yearning all along for the things that were being provided for the white children with whom I had to chop cotton every day, or pick corn, or whatever my task happened to be.
I think that actually, the first hurt that came to me in my childhood was the contrast of what was being done for the white children and the lack of what we got.
Johnson: At what age did this occur?
Bethune: Around nine or ten years.
Johnson: Sometimes we may be feeling that thing under the surface for a long time and a little instance touches it off. Do you remember any such?
Bethune: My mother kept in rather close contact with the people she served as a slave. She continued to cook for her master until she owned five acres of land. He deeded her five acres. The cabin, my father and brothers built. It was the cabin in which I was born.
