- Walk the talk–that’s a cliched way of saying that your decisions should be reflected in your actions. I also think that the way in which you express this link or connection is very important. Eleanor Roosevelt’s slamming down of that folding metal chair in the middle aisle echoed in more ways than one. She let everyone know where she stood. She also was doing what she could do; she had no formal power but was still working hard to push things forward. What folding metal chair have you used, or used lately?
- Ask yourself what you would have done in Eleanor Roosevelt’s situation in the meeting room. What would it have suggested if she had sat with blacks? What about with the whites but said something openly about her opinion? What if she had simply turned around and was not seated at all? Each option sends a different message and has a different tone and feel to it.
- What makes for a moment like Eleanor Roosevelt’s folding metal chair? Let’s reiterate from the takeaways–1) knowing clearly your message; 2) following your gut instincts and not allowing overthinking to get in the way; and 3) acceptance of risk and the need to decide/act in a less-than-friendly setting. There’s other stuff, too, I realize, but I think these are what’s left after boiling down her experience.
- Speaking of her experience, permit me to disclose. I regard Eleanor Roosevelt as an American story. In all probability, issue to issue, policy to policy, and topic to topic, she and I would likely disagree politically more often than not. That’s not important. What is important is her vital and vibrant role in the American experience. And for that, I happily tip my hat.
- She broke the law when she did what she did. The local sheriff, Eugene “Bull” Connor, didn’t arrest her. In this instance, her position as First Lady shielded her. Nevertheless, a lot of people wouldn’t have taken the risk that she took. As an aside, roughly a quarter-century later, Connor will make an infamous appearance in the marches of Martin Luther King Jr and his fellow civil rights protestors.
- Barely a year after the incident in Birmingham, Eleanor Roosevelt was instrumental in arranging for black singer Marian Anderson to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. At the time it was a startling display of her support for civil rights. The media coverage of the event underscored the historic nature of the event. During World War II she also promoted the black military pilots group known as the Tuskegee Airmen. White Southern Democrats were scathing in their opinion of her. She didn’t flinch.
- She also withdrew from the Daughters of the American Revolution because of their discrimination against blacks. This was a big deal because the DAR was a major social organization at the time. Roosevelt was one of the acknowledged public figures in a longstanding American family. Her decision had an impact.
- Eleanor Roosevelt chafed under the limits imposed on her by her husband, his group of advisors, and the overall expectations of being First Lady. She broke out of these limitations when she toured the nation on behalf of Franklin Roosevelt’s policies, met with groups often considered outside the political mainstream (blacks, the impoverished, and so forth), and wrote an extensive series of newspaper columns and magazine articles during the 1930s and 1940s. She held numerous press conferences at which male reporters were denied entry because their female counterparts were not allowed at her husband’s press conferences. As a leader, she was an extraordinary communicator.
- Eleanor Roosevelt came from a wealthy background. The interesting thing is that she consciously sought to broaden her view and experiences to see more of what life and the world really were. That’s a great point to remember, for you and for me. Also, at the age of fourteen, she commented on the limits of her physical looks. She really wasn’t visibly attractive, and she knew it. But as a teenager she said that if she was honest and trustworthy she would attract people all the same. Big stuff for a fourteen-year-old.
- She took it upon herself that she would be the voice of the voiceless in Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential administration. She clashed frequently with the president’s advisors over her public and publicized visits with black families, youth, immigrants, and poor workers. She was also often the key link between the Roosevelt Administration and various groups that contained radicalized members, such as Communists. It was these associations that led FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to keep her under close scrutiny.
- Eleanor Roosevelt understood and accepted that she was the one who could most forcefully prod Franklin Roosevelt to consider the social, racial, and cultural implications of his policies. She often criticized him, sometimes harshly, for overlooking these elements of his programs while President.
- Eleanor Roosevelt had a distinctive charm. She was humorous, able to laugh at herself, openly caring of other people, and determined to work for improvements in everything she undertook. She was also earnest and deeply concerned about major social issues of the era.
- Early in Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency Eleanor Roosevelt emerged as a key figure for dealing with the controversy of the Bonus Army. This was a group of discontent Army veterans who believed they had not been paid a bonus owed them. The group rallied at Washington DC and encamped on the Mall in protest. President Herbert Hoover had regarded them as potential rebels and a threat to order. President Roosevelt, however, relied on his wife Eleanor in dealing with the protestors. She visited them, listened to their stories, and helped to siphon off their anger and hostility. In large part because of her efforts, the Bonus Army disbanded. In leadership she excelled at bridging differences.
- Much of Eleanor Roosevelt’s life had a tragic tinge. She lost both her parents and a brother when she was quite young and lamented the lack of love and affection in her childhood. Her upbringing left in Eleanor the belief that she was unable to care for children of her own, a fear that she had to battle to overcome. In 1918 she discovered that her husband, Franklin, was having an affair. The discovery shattered her. Subsequent affairs by her husband throughout the 1930s and early 1940s added to her discouragement. Her work as a champion of equal rights and humanitarian causes was one way she focused her time and energy away from her marriage.
- It’s probable that she had romantic relationships with at least one man (Earl Miller, a bodyguard) and one woman (reporter Lorena Hickok) during the White House years of her marriage to Franklin Roosevelt. The Eleanor-Franklin marriage was a sort of supportive understanding. Each had their own sets of relationships and yet valued one another’s strengths while setting aside their flaws and weaknesses. Franklin Roosevelt was with another woman on the day he died, a fact that outraged Eleanor Roosevelt. Don’t be fooled by the endurance of the Roosevelt marital arrangement; I think she suffered substantially in her private life. Still, she remained cheerful and fundamentally optimistic about life. That’s good for all of us to remember.
- Eleanor Roosevelt and a handful of her closest friends established a factory, Val-Kill. It was an experimental business that sought to build replicas of colonial furniture. The experience gave her a unique insight into business, markets, and capitalism that wasn’t often shared by her wealthy peers or more anti-business members of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency.
- As one of the American delegates to the United Nations Eleanor Roosevelt was a driving force behind the drafting and approval of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She regarded it as her greatest achievement. What’s yours? I ask not to make your answer dim by comparison with ER, but rather to simply put it straightforwardly to you. It’s a worthwhile question that should be asked regularly.
- She regarded the death of Franklin Roosevelt as somewhat freeing. It allowed her to pursue her many interests in policy without the encumbrances of being a First Lady. She was, for a time, considered as a potential vice-presidential candidate when Harry Truman ran for the presidency. Truman was less than thrilled at the prospect.
- Thanks to my neighbor, Greg Beckley, for the use of the folding metal chair. It was a great prop, Greg. I owe you an adult beverage.
