The First Ladies

The First Ladies follows the friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune with historical accuracy. When compared to multiple articles (e.g., “Eleanor and Mary McLeod Bethune”; “The Unlikely Friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune”; “Mary McLeod Bethune: American Educator”) and the women’s firsthand accounts, the novel is faithful to real-life events. In the Historical Note, authors Benedict and Murray state that they investigated the characters through visiting Bethune-Cookman University, reading Albert Jr.’s biography about his grandmother, reading newspapers, looking at microfilm, analyzing letters between Eleanor and Mary, and more. Benedict and Murray are close friends, and in this collaboration sought to balance the respect for history and their desire to write a story of another unique friendship.

Mary was the last of 17 children born to her parents but the first of their children to be born into freedom. Her family worked on a plantation, and Mary picked cotton as a child. She graduated from Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Caroline, and attended Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, Illinois with the intent of becoming a missionary.