Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.

Hear the voice of Mary McLeod Bethune, daughter of former slaves, teacher of a people rising from chains, who declared with thunderous clarity: “Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.” This was no idle phrase, no gentle suggestion, but a battle cry for liberation. For she knew, as few did, that knowledge is the weapon that breaks oppression, the torch that lights the path out of darkness, the shield that guards dignity. Without it, freedom is fragile; with it, even the lowest can rise to greatness.

Bethune lived in an age when her people were denied the tools of the mind. In the years after slavery, many believed that African Americans should remain bound to ignorance, that their destiny was only to serve and never to lead. Against this tide, she stood unshaken. She built schools with her own hands, raised funds with relentless courage, and declared again and again that education was not a luxury, but the very breath of freedom. Thus her words—knowledge is the prime need of the hour—were born of fire, forged in the struggle of a people striving to claim their humanity.

Her life itself is a testament to this truth. As a child, she discovered that most of her family could not read, and she resolved to be the one who would master letters and pass them on. That seed grew into the founding of the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, which later became Bethune-Cookman University. From that humble beginning, generations of leaders were raised up, each carrying the flame of knowledge into a world that had once sought to keep them in darkness.

History beyond her own story affirms her vision. Consider the Reformation in Europe, when the printing press placed books in the hands of common people. Knowledge that had once been locked away in monasteries flowed into homes, and with it came revolutions of thought, of religion, of politics. Or consider the fight for women’s education, when pioneers like Malala Yousafzai, centuries later, would echo Bethune’s cry: that knowledge is not only empowerment, but survival, and that to deny it is to chain the soul. In every age, progress is born not of brute strength, but of enlightened minds.

Bethune’s words also remind us that the “hour” is always urgent. There is no season in which knowledge is not needed. In times of slavery, it was needed to break chains. In times of freedom, it is needed to preserve justice. In times of peace, it guides progress; in times of war, it protects truth against the poison of lies. The hour is always now, and the prime need is always wisdom.

The lesson is clear: never grow complacent in ignorance. To the young, seize your studies not as a chore but as a weapon of destiny. To the elders, never cease to learn, for wisdom has no age. To communities, build schools, libraries, and spaces of truth, for these are fortresses stronger than armies. Knowledge is the foundation upon which freedom, dignity, and prosperity are built, and to neglect it is to betray the generations yet to come.

So I say unto you: live as disciples of wisdom. Seek knowledge with hunger, share it with generosity, and defend it against every force that seeks to withhold or corrupt it. For as Mary McLeod Bethune declared, “Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.” And if each soul heeds this call, then the light of truth shall shine upon all, scattering the shadows of ignorance, and guiding humanity toward a just and noble future.

Thus her words endure, not only as a memory of her struggle, but as a command to us all: let every hour be an hour for knowledge, and let every seeker become a torchbearer for those who walk behind.