In 1942, with the support of a Rosenwald Fellowship, Gordon Parks moved east to Washington, D.C. to begin his apprenticeship at the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which was under the leadership of Roy Stryker. One of President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the FSA’s mission was to document the “Face of America”—American life during the Depression years in rural and urban areas. The following year, at the height of the United States’ engagement in World War II, the FSA disbanded and was absorbed into the newly formed Office of War Information (OWI)—a government agency tasked with creating and disseminating messaging that promoted national unity, boosted morale, and shaped public perception of the war at home and abroad. Parks was asked by Stryker to join him at the OWI, becoming the agency’s only Black photographer.

At the OWI, Parks was tasked with creating images that would reshape public perceptions of African American life and underscore the patriotic contributions of Black Americans. As institutions of Black excellence, education, and civic responsibility, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were ideal subjects for this agenda. Parks’s images taken as part of these assignments hint at the course of his career in the decades that followed, demonstrating his unique emphasis on humanity and community.

In 1943, Gordon Parks arrived in Daytona Beach, Florida, with his camera and the assignment to document one of several HBCUs shaping the lives of African American youth during World War II. At Bethune-Cookman College, Parks found a community molded by the indelible vision of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. The photographs Parks took there are vivid testaments to a model of Black education rooted in self-determination and pride. But behind each image stands Bethune herself: educator, activist, political strategist, and one of the most influential Black women in American history.

Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was a pioneering educator, political strategist, and civil rights leader whose legacy continues to shape American history. In 1904, with just $1.50 and a fierce determination to educate Black girls, Bethune opened the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Florida. She built the school from the ground up—creating ink from elderberries and writing implements from burned wood—driven by a belief that education was the key to racial advancement. The school eventually merged with the Cookman Institute in Jacksonville, Florida, and by 1931, it had officially became Bethune-Cookman College, honoring the leadership of Dr. Bethune.