Lessons in Legacy

Before school buses lined dirt roads and brick buildings replaced one-room schoolhouses, education in Florida depended on determined women who believed learning could transform a community. Some built colleges from nothing. Others repaired crumbling classrooms with their own money. All of them shaped generations of students who would go on to shape Florida itself. This week, we’re highlighting three women whose dedication to education left a lasting mark on our state and right here at home.

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955)

Born in 1875 in South Carolina to formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune understood from an early age that education was power. She studied at Scotia Seminary and later at the Moody Bible Institute before moving to Florida, where she founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904 with just $1.50 and a deep belief in her students’ potential, according to the National Park Service. That small school eventually became Bethune-Cookman University.

At a time when racial segregation and limited funding created enormous barriers, Bethune built an institution that expanded access to higher education for Black students across Florida and the nation. She also served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming one of the most influential Black women in American public life, according to the National Women’s History Museum. Bethune did more than teach lessons, she built pathways.

Frankie A. Howze (1868–1956)

Born in 1868, Frankie A. Howze became known as the “Mother of Education in Manatee County.” A widowed mother of four, she came to Palmetto after a devastating Yellow Fever outbreak left the community in desperate need of teachers. Howze not only taught, she invested her own money to improve the school’s dilapidated facilities and introduced progressive teaching methods she had studied in Chicago, according to reporting by The Bradenton Times.

She became principal of Palmetto Academy when it opened in 1895 as the first publicly funded school in Manatee County. In her first year, she organized a library society and later became the first librarian of the Carnegie Library in Palmetto, according to Manatee County historical accounts. Committed to lifelong learning, Howze took summer classes at Columbia University to stay current in educational techniques. When she retired in 1940 after 67 years of service, she returned to college yet again. She died in 1956, leaving behind a public school system fundamentally shaped by her leadership and standards.

Blanche Armwood (1890–1939)

Born in Tampa in 1890, Blanche Armwood emerged as one of Hillsborough County’s most significant early Black educators. After graduating from Fisk University, she returned to Tampa and founded the Tampa School of Expression in 1914, providing educational opportunities for Black students during segregation, according to Hillsborough County Public Schools historical records.

Armwood later became the first Black female principal in Hillsborough County and played a central role in expanding secondary education for Black students in the area. She helped establish what became Armwood High School, named in her honor, according to Hillsborough County Public Schools. Working within the confines of Jim Crow Florida, Armwood advocated for educational equity and built institutions that served generations of students who had few other options.

Mary McLeod Bethune built a college from faith and determination. Frankie Howze rebuilt a struggling frontier school and raised educational standards across Manatee County. Blanche Armwood created opportunity where segregation tried to deny it. Their classrooms looked different — some in small wooden buildings, others in growing city schools — but their mission was the same: to open doors through education. Because of women like these, Florida’s story is not only one of growth and development, but of learning, persistence and the belief that knowledge could change a life.