WEBVTT - Eleanor Roosevelt: A Most Remarkable First Lady 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:09.440 Everybody knew that she was more liberal than Franklin, and 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:13.920 on many issues. For example, take anti lynching, the anti 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.919 lynching law. Franklin was aware that he could not get 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.960 anything through the Senate with so many committees chaired by 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:26.479 Southern senators, but Eleanor could speak out on in favor 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.400 of anti lynching laws. I've heard many people say that 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.640 they didn't have much use for Franklin, but they voted 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:35.920 for him just because he was married to Eleanor and 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.400 they had faith that she would make the right decisions 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:44.800 when she could. That is historian Betty Boyd Coroll talking 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:49.080 about Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the most extraordinary first ladies 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.600 this country has ever known. From the nineteen thirties through 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:58.280 the early sixties, Eleanor Roosevelt was a vigorous champion for 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:03.600 social justice and equal rights for women, for African Americans, 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:08.040 for the poor, for working people. I'm a land Ververe 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.520 and this is Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear. We 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.800 are bringing you one hundred of the world's most inspiring 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.840 and history making women. You need to hear. The wife 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:24.160 of one President Franklin, Delana Roosevelt, and the niece of 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:30.360 another Teddy Roosevelt. Eleanor had enormous influence on policy, known 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.120 as FDR's Eyes, Ears and Legs. During the Depression, she 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:40.400 traveled across the country meeting with ordinary citizens and advocating 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.640 for relief programs. After World War Two, she was a 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.520 prime mover behind the U n s Universal Declaration of 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:53.640 Human Rights. That landmark document has become the basis for 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:59.000 constitutions of countries around the world. Our guest today is 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:03.720 Betty Boyd care L, a leading expert on American first ladies. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:09.480 Her books include Lady Burton Lindon First Ladies, Martha Washington 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:14.520 to Michelle Obama, and the Roosevelt Women. Let's listen and 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.160 learn why Eleanor Roosevelt is one of Seneca's one Women. 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:24.960 To hear Well, I'm really excited to be here today 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.880 with Betty Boyd Carole, who is an authority on first ladies, 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.600 and we are going to be discussing one of the 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.680 great first ladies, Eleanor Roosevelt today. But Betty is the 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:40.280 author of several books and and a wonderful authority and resource. 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.919 So Betty, welcome, thank you, good to be here. Eleanor 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.720 Roosevelt was so many things. She was a diplomatic, human 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:52.239 rights crusader, a politician, one of the most remarkable, if 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.640 not the most remarkable first lady. What do you think 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.960 she is best remembered for and how would you discus 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.080 ribe her impact? Well? I think how she is being 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.800 remembered depends on the age group. For a certain age group, 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.720 I think Eleanor Roosevelt will always be the first Lady, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.040 an amazing first lady in the job much longer than 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.480 anyone had ever been, and did more with it than 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.280 anyone had ever done. But I think for younger Americans 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:27.440 probably she's remembered for her post first lady years, when 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.440 she became really first lady of the world with her 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.880 work at the United Nations UH the Declaration of Human Rights. 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.040 So it depends on the age group. But certainly she's 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:44.040 one of the most remarkable American women ever produced. So 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.640 let's perhaps start at the beginning so we can get 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.920 to understand her a little better and peel what she 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.559 was up against. She didn't start out as a crusader, 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.680 she didn't start out the way that history remembers her today. 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.880 For the most part, what was it like for women 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.680 of her time and and how was she as a person. 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:06.920 She didn't have all the confidence in the world, as 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.560 I remember. No. Eleanor Roosevelt certainly had one of the 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:15.760 most disastrous childhoods of all time, probably losing both her 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.760 parents before the age of ten, also a brother, growing 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:24.400 up in really very tragic circumstances. But she went away 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.560 to school in England, uh in a school that her 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.400 aunt had attended previously. I think she gained enormous self 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.919 confidence there, partly because of the way she was treated 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.440 by the school. It was a different atmosphere, so she 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.440 gained some confidence there. And by the time she came 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.839 back to the United States in nineteen two, her uncle 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.240 was President of the United States, and I think she 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.440 began to see the women in her family in a 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:54.240 slightly different light. Certainly they were important to her development, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.240 I think, although not much credit is given to them. 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.279 Remember that at the time Theodore was president, event his sister, 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:04.480 his older sister Bamy, her real name was Anna, but 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:08.560 everybody called Obami, lived right there in Washington, and Eleanor 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.600 said she thought that Theodore never made an important decision 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.000 without talking it over with Bammy first. So Bannie had 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:22.360 tremendous political aptitude. She was interested in how issues were resolved, 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.400 and I think I think that made a difference to Eleanor. 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.880 I think she saw that the other aunt was also 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:33.359 politically involved, a friend of senators, and actually later became 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.159 the first woman to give a nominating speech at a 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.159 major party convention for president. So she came back from 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.160 England with already a bit of self confidence, and then 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.320 I think being exposed to those women in her family, 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.640 I think that helped she had some social conscience then. 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.320 I mean, we know that she went to work briefly. 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.400 When I say work, I mean a volunteer work at 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.840 a settlement house here in New York. And what they 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.080 it at the settlements was she taught dancing or whatever 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:07.119 needed to be taught. But she also made visits to homes. 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.320 And it's said that when Franklin accompanied her to some 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:17.640 of the very impoverished homes, dilapidated housing, terrible conditions, he said, 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.320 I didn't know people lived like that. So she had 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.360 some social conscience then and perhaps exposed him to one 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.400 of his first well he said it was his first 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.359 exposure to that kind of living. So that's how she 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.559 started out. But the real change, I think comes later, 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.200 and I think we can point to World War One 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.960 for for making that change. Now, what do you mean 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.160 by that? We can point to World War One because 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:46.400 she wasn't the crusader that she became at the end. 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.159 She was always involved and as you said, she was 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:56.280 pointing out to her husband some of the really difficult 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.160 ways in which people were living, even before he was president. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.839 And of course she did that in spades once he 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:08.440 was president. Uh So, what made her into the crusaders 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.360 she became ten years or so after her marriage. She 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.600 was pretty much concerned with family. She gave birth to 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.240 six children in ten years. One of them died, but 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:24.400 five lived to adulthood. It was after that, after nineteen sixteen, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.560 the children were born and on their way. And I 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.600 have to say that even before that, when Franklin was 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.440 elected to the state legislature in nineteen ten, and at 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.520 their home there were meetings of Democratic leaders. So she 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.360 was involved in political discussions. It just that she wasn't. 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.040 She didn't speak out in the way that she did later. 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.360 But in nineteen thirteen they moved to Washington because Franklin 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:55.160 became assistant secretary of the Navy, and they lived in 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.240 a house, uh near Um the aunt that I mentioned 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:03.480 earlier ban me, And when the war started, Eleanor was 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:08.640 right down there volunteering at the canteen, talking to soldiers 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.679 going off the war, dealing with the wounded who came back. 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.920 And I think it opened her eyes to what needed 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.440 to be done and what she could do. And it's 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.600 really after that, after the war that we see her 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:25.040 getting involved. Of course, then uh in Franklin was on 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.920 the Democratic ticket as vice president. She campaigned, but just 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.400 not the way we think of campaigning, not giving speeches. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.360 She rode beside him on the train, you know, and 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.520 wait that sort of thing. And then, of course when 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.400 he gets polio in one she's really pushed into the 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.080 limelight in a way that she wasn't before. In other words, 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.880 I think Louis Howe was instrumental in getting her too 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.960 to travel to be the eyes and ears for Franklin 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.240 when his mobility was limited. So it's really the war, 0:08:54.520 --> 0:09:00.560 Franklin's polio that initiates her as a major activist. And 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.640 how did she feel about the women's suffrage movement? Would 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.880 we describe her as a feminist in those days? Oh? 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.080 The suffrage question, I think it people of our time 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.920 have probable understanding why women like Eleanor Roosevelt and her aunts, 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:19.079 remember the aunt that was advising the president, They weren't 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.600 interested in the vote at all. It was it was 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.440 common to women of that class and time, and I 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:26.800 think they felt that they really had enough to do 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.839 with politics without voting. You know, if you're having dinner 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.280 with the president or the your senator, you didn't really 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.160 feel you had to vote. You were speaking your mind 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.760 right to the top. So her aunts didn't favor the vote, 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.320 and she really didn't favor the vote until I think 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.599 we can say after New York gave the vote, I 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.319 shouldn't say gave the vote. The women achieved the right 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:54.160 to vote were enfranchised by nineteen seventeen. I mean the 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:58.079 the election of nineteen seventeen in New York. People voted 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.200 that women should be allowed to vote, so after that 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.640 they could. I think that maybe gave a little spur 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.280 of energy to a movement. So now we're going to 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:12.240 fast forward and her husband is elected president and she 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:18.800 enters into that very difficult position a first lady, one 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.560 that comes with no job description those days. I think 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.000 she may have had one staff. If that but you're 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.240 gonna let us know, and she turned out to be 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:33.080 perhaps the most activist first lady. How did she feel 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:37.000 about moving into the White House and did she have 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.360 a sense of what would be required of her or 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.200 how did all of that evolve. Eleanor Roosevelt hated the 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.800 idea of moving into the White House. She said she 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.000 wanted to keep her teaching job. Remember, she had seen 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.960 her aunt in the job. Theodore's wife, Edith, had had 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.280 the job almost eight years, so it was mostly although 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.079 I think Edith has been a little underestimated. I mean, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:02.840 after all, Edith did have some ideas about how to 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:07.160 popularize the presidential family by hiring a secretary that gave 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:11.480 out autographed photographs of them and so forth. So I 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.800 think maybe Eleanor underestimated her aunt Edith. But she definitely 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.960 didn't want that hostessing job, where most of it was 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:23.080 just greeting people at the table and not speaking your mind. 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.600 I don't Edith had a few opinions, but she was 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.679 very careful about uh telling anybody what they were. So 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.360 Eleanor definitely did not want to move into the White House. 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.280 But she did, and she did give up her teaching 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.640 job and she had a staff, but not what we 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.800 would call a staff today. I mean, what's the typical Well, 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.959 not in this administration, but in previous administrations you would 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:47.960 be able to tell us this. It's more like two 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:50.880 dozen people are on it at least and then borrowing, 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.400 as Lady burg Johnson, did you borrowed from other departments? Well, 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.520 Eleanor's was nothing like that. In fact, it's not even 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:02.200 officially entered into the Book of Government Employees, the person 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.760 working or the persons working for the First Lady. The 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.679 first one to really be mentioned officially is Mamie Eisenhower's 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.120 secretary in the nineteen fifties. But Eleanor did have people 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:16.360 working for She had secretaries, she had people volunteering. She 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:21.600 had her friend Lourina Hiccock, the journalist, moved in as 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:23.960 soon as she went to the White House in nineteen three. 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.840 So um, she did have a staff. And remember when 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.200 she got there, she had had a lot of training. 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.880 I think if you look at what Eleanor Roosevelt did 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.319 in the nineteen twenties, you're not very surprised by what 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.880 she did in the nineteen thirties as First Lady. Because remember, 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:44.280 in nineteen she helped write the platform. She was very 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.960 active in the women's division of the Democratic Party, helping 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.520 to write the platform. She had a strong network of 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.880 women friends who were instrumental in many very activists in 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:00.880 many organizations. So she'd gained she'd gained confidence, says a speaker, 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.560 because she she had confidence meeting people. She had been 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.800 wife of the governor of New York, so she she 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.400 didn't come in. I think there are a few first 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.680 ladies who were as well prepared for the job as 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:19.880 Eleanor Roosevelt was in n You know, that's really an 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.720 interesting comment because we don't think about it that way. 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.520 We think of all the professional women who have come 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.880 in since. But she really did come with a lot 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.960 of experience that was relevant to the way the position 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.280 evolved in her doing it. Yes, I cannot think Lady 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.080 Bird Johnson, of course had more years in Washington, but 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.080 I think the two of them are probably um the 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.480 best prepared of any first ladies in terms of their 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.160 time in Washington and knowing what the job entailed. You know, 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.600 we talked a little bit about women and getting the 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.560 right to vote, and another issue that was clearly one 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.160 in that society was grappling with was the issue of 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.920 race relations. And one of her most memorable acts was 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.480 having Marian Anderson saying at the Lincoln Memorial back in 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.040 nineteen thirty nine. I think, so, how did all of 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.960 that happen? Because that was another really extraordinary bit of 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:22.800 action on Eleanor's part. It was that was extraordinary. Remember 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:27.360 Marian Anderson in nineteen thirty nine, I had a world reputation, 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.640 but was not permitted to sing in most venues in 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.520 the United States. I mean, she was what about forty, 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.560 she was born about forty in her early forties, a 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.520 wonderful control co in Europe. She had been praised as 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.760 a voice that is heard once in a century. And 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:45.440 you know, if you go on YouTube and listen to 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.680 her singing in front of the Lincoln Memorial that day 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.880 in nineteen thirty nine, you'll understand what they were talking about. 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.440 It was a remarkable voice. She had had fantastic success 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.480 in Europe. So in ninety nine, the plan was to 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.520 have her sing in Washington, and and the only hall 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.160 large enough to accommodate what it was thought would be 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.320 you know, an unbelievable crowd was Constitution Hall, which was 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.640 of course controlled by the Daughters of American Revolution and 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.440 they had a policy, a race policy that the audiences 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.320 were not integrated and certainly not the performers, so they 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.320 denied her the right to sing there. And Eleanor got 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.720 wind of this, and with the Secretary of Interior, and 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.360 I think Franklin's help, I think it was a broad 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.120 based appeal, it was decided that she would sing in 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:37.440 front of in the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. And 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.200 if you see pictures of that on YouTube, I mean 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.200 that's something like people lined up in front and it's 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.040 just Marian Anderson upfair with her pianist, this kind of 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:52.520 lonely figure in front of this impressive monument, and she 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.680 starts singing. It's an unbelievable event. I think what most 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.960 people don't know is that Eleanor did not actually attend 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.800 the concert because she felt it would take attention away 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.520 from Marion Anderson. That's the kind of person she was. 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.520 Senecas one hundred women to hear will be back after 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:27.720 the short break. Well, she made history in so many ways. 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:33.000 She also had her radio addresses and we read her columns, 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.960 so she was communicating constantly. Her impressions of what was 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.000 happening in the country, and it was a tumultuous time. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.760 It wasn't a tumultuous time. Remember, I always say that 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:49.160 she she tops all lists for first ladies. Whether you 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.200 survey the readers of Good Housekeeping or you ask political 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.040 scientists to rate first Ladies, Eleanor Roosevelt always comes out 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.160 on top. But we remember that she was in the 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.480 job longer than anybody, as I said before, and also 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.359 during the Great Depression and World War Two, two of 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:11.359 our very low spots in American history. But she knew 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.760 how to use her time there. I mean, it wasn't 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.560 just that she was up against really rough times. You 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.679 speak about her her writing, she had started out writing 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:25.919 articles earlier, and then by nine I think, well she 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.680 there was some competition with her cousin Alice Roosevelt, who 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.480 also wanted to write columns, but Eleanor showed her very 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.439 quickly who could be best at that job. So Eleanor 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:42.040 started writing a column December one, nineteen thirty five, and 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.840 wrote it right up until her death. I mean just 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.240 a few weeks before her death. She scaled back to 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.320 instead of six days a week, three days a week, 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:52.840 or something like that. She scaled back. But these my 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:57.320 day columns that Americans read, and I've heard people say 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:02.000 that their mothers told them o' franklin, he can't be 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.160 that bad if he's married to her. I mean, people 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.639 didn't like Franklin at all would read Eleanor's daily columns 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.080 and think they had a kindred soul. She also went 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.040 on the radio issue point out not part of this, 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.600 I think maybe most people don't know this, but part 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.960 of her publishing, publishing and her uh speaking on the 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.320 radio was commercial. In other words, she was paid for it. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:29.800 She was paid pretty well for the radio appearances and 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:34.400 in fact made more money than uh Franklin did. Franklin's 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:38.000 salary at the beginning was seventy dollars a year, and 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.280 she was making more than that with her radio speeches. 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.600 We probably should talk a little bit about Eleanor's attitude 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:48.399 toward money. She um she really liked to be paid 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.280 for what she did. Now she had an income, she 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.960 had a family income, and she had her her as 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.080 a wife of Franklin, she had access to money. But 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.560 she felt that the money she earned herself was important 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.440 and she gave it away. I mean she gave enormous 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:10.440 amounts to different charities. It wasn't that she spend it, 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.280 you know, everybody knows she was not a spender, certainly 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.480 not on clothes or personal luxuries. So she gave the 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.720 money away, but she wanted to be compensated for what 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.720 she did, and she reached out to people in a 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.360 way that no first lady had ever done. She's not 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.159 the first first lady to speak on the radio, but 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.960 she certainly used it more than any of the others 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.080 ever had and reached more people. And she did press 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:38.480 conferences too, didn't she. All her press conferences were and 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.080 sometimes they were broadcast on the radio. But the important 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.760 thing I think about the press conferences is not only 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.159 that she had them, but that she limited attendance to women, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:50.840 so that newspapers that didn't have a woman on the 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:55.280 staff were quickly encouraged to hire one so they could 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.959 attend Eleanor's press conferences and pick up a little something 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.840 that maybe had and hit the news rooms before. She 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.359 really was ahead of her time in so many ways. 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.400 You know, I have this image of her on those 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.919 cargo planes with her wrapped in a blanket, flying to 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:20.119 our servicemen during the war. I mean, what an extraordinary 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:25.160 thing that she did, at great personal sacrifice to herself, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.560 great discomfort, and yet she would go and meet with them, 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.160 bring back their letters from there to their families, etcetera. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:34.320 Can you talk a little bit about that role that 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:37.040 she played. Oh, there are so many stories about and 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.439 I think you're thinking particularly about the trip to the 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:44.920 Pacific exactly. Yeah, and remember those planes were not very pressurized. 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:49.680 I mean it was extremely uncomfortable to do, but she 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:54.199 went and she Oh the hours that she spent up 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.679 early in the morning till late at night, going from 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.040 bed to bed in the hospitals, talking to men who 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.480 had been injured. Did they have a letter they wanted 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:05.000 to give somebody back home. She would personally see that 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.000 it got delivered. It was just an amazing thing. Nobody 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.399 had ever done anything like that, people, no first lady 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.399 had ever done anything like that before. So you know, 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.240 she wasn't a person for comfort. I mean, that was 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:19.639 the last thing on her list, it seems to me. 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.320 And she was a constant nudge to her husband, was 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.280 she not. Oh, there are many stories about that, and 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.520 I think that's a very clever partnership they worked out 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.119 because everybody knew that she was more liberal than Franklin, 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.040 and on many issues, for example, take anti lynching, the 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.120 anti lynching law. Franklin was aware that he could not 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.240 get anything through the Senate with so many committees chaired 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:51.399 by Southern senators. But Eleanor could speak out on in 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:55.720 favor of anti lynching laws, and and when people said, 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:57.800 can't you get your wife to shut up, he'd just say, oh, 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:00.399 I can't do anything about her. So another words, they 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:04.200 were pulling people who were four an anti lynching law 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.399 and appeasing those who were against, you know, in the 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.360 same couple. They were working it out very well. I've 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.600 heard many people say that they didn't have much use 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:15.919 for Franklin, but they voted for him just because he 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:18.359 was married to Eleanor, and they had faith that she 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:22.240 would make the right decisions when she could, and she 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.960 really had her pulse on the country in terms of 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:29.440 being able to tell him what was happening. Well, that's 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:32.479 of course something that she did extremely well, which was 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.199 to go into poor areas of Appellation, for example, and 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:38.840 come back to Washington and tell the stories about how 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:41.080 people were living and how there needed to be some 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:46.560 sort of housing improvement in that area. Uh, just those 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.119 that really goes back, doesn't it to her days in 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.119 the College settlement when she was going around immigrant households 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:55.040 in New York City and she just applied the same 0:22:55.480 --> 0:23:00.200 measures going from different different areas in the United States eater. 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:04.399 So people said that she got away with that. In 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:06.920 other words, people didn't think she was reaching too far 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:12.440 because of his limited mobility, because of his being unable 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.479 to travel, and of course he was he was pushing 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.240 her on that. Remember the story when she comes back 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:20.160 and says, oh, I think they were having a pretty 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.360 good diet at that prison or wherever she had visited, 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.399 and he he said, well what did they eat? She said, well, 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:28.480 they ate this and this and this. And he said, 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:30.880 well did you go in and look at the pots 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:33.960 in the kitchen? And she said no, I didn't do that, 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:36.720 and he said, well, that's the real test. So the 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.159 next time she made sure she looked at the pots 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:41.919 in the kitchen. You see, because what she was served 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:45.040 out front as an example of what the prisoners were 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:48.639 eating maybe or the people in whatever institutions she was visiting, 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:51.840 that might not have been exactly what they were eating 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:55.040 from day to day. Self fascinating and what a great 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:59.280 first lady. But we remember her too, not just for 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:02.280 all of this and so much more, but for what 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:06.680 happened after the White House. That's true. You know. It's 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:11.040 often told that she met a reporter after Franklin had 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:13.960 died in nineteen forty five, and he said, so, what's 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:17.439 the story, and she said, those stories over now. But 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:20.600 of course it wasn't. She lived another seventeen years when 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:23.280 you when you think that's a and was really active 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:27.399 right up until almost the time of her death. In 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:30.720 other words, she was supported appointed by President Kennedy to 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:35.680 head the Women's Commission. So um, she was active seventeen 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:38.080 years and what we most well, I don't know what 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.560