In 1936, FDR appointed Mary McLeod Bethune as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration (NYA). The highest ranking African American in the federal government, Bethune was also the first Black woman to administer a federal program. #WomensHistoryMonth
Pauli Murray
“I . . . feel that you are the sort of person who prefers to be accepted as a human being and not a human paragon”
-- Pauli Murray to Eleanor Roosevelt, December 6, 1938
Student activist Pauli Murray and Eleanor Roosevelt developed a close friendship that lasted over two decades. The two first met briefly in 1934, when ER visited a women’s CCC camp where Murray was enrolled. Four years later, Murray sent this letter to the First Lady—the start of an extended correspondence that would continue until ER’s death in 1962.
Murray enclosed a long letter she had sent to FDR “in the hope that you will try to understand the spirit and deep perplexity in which it is written, if he is too busy.”
Eleanor responded quickly to Murray. “I have read the copy of the letter you sent me,” she wrote, “and I understand perfectly, but great changes come slowly. I think they are coming, however, and sometimes it is better to fight hard with conciliatory methods. The South is changing, but don’t push too fast. There is a great change in youth, for instance, and that is a hopeful sign.”
Document: AR 2023.1.82/Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Learn more about Pauli Murray in our current special exhibition BLACK AMERICANS, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND THE ROOSEVELTS, 1932-1962.
Women at Work
World War II profoundly affected the lives of American women as the nation mobilized for national defense. With factories booming and millions of men entering the military, labor shortages threatened the war effort. To help overcome this problem, the government urged women to enter the workforce in greater numbers. Millions responded, including many who took well-paying industrial jobs previously reserved for men. Between 1940 and 1944 the percentage of women workers in the iron and steel industry jumped from 6.7% to 22.3%. In the automotive sector it increased from 5.7% to 24.4% and in the chemical industry from 15.4% to 31.6%. Between 1941 and 1944, the number of working women rose from 14.6 million to 19.4 million. Married women accounted for over two-thirds of this increase.
While encouraging women to join the industrial workforce, wartime recruitment posters sometimes offered mixed messages that reflected, and reinforced, the pervasive gender discrimination present in America during the 1940s. The imagery in many was calculated to assure Americans that female war workers retained their traditional femininity. Some offered reassuring messages that women would happily exchange their “overalls for aprons” when the men returned from battle. While many women wished to remain in their jobs after the war, they were encouraged to give up their positions to returning veterans. During demobilization, they were terminated in disproportionately large numbers. Ultimately, most wartime employment gains for women were reversed. Yet the experiences of women war workers helped inspire the postwar women’s rights movement.
Learn more about this poster on our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/.../theres-work-to-be...
Follow along throughout 2024 as we feature more #TheArtOfWar WWII posters from our Digital Artifact Collection.
Happy International Women's Day
First Lady of Struggle - Mary McLeod Bethune
“The responsibility rests on us. We can get better results thinking and planning together. We must think about each other’s problems. Let us band together and work together as one big brotherhood and give momentum to the great ball that is starting to roll for Negroes.”
—Mary McLeod Bethune, Remarks at 1st Meeting of the Federal Council on Negro Affairs (Black Cabinet), August 7, 1936
Mary McLeod Bethune in her office at Bethune-Cookman College, 1943: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017843210/
Much of the success of the Black Cabinet was due to the influence of its leader, Mary McLeod Bethune. In 1936, FDR appointed Bethune as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration (NYA). She served there from 1936 until the agency’s demise in 1943. The highest ranking African American in the federal government, Bethune was also the first Black woman to administer a federal program. A forceful and inspiring leader, she helped make the NYA the New Deal’s most racially progressive agency.
Bethune occupied a uniquely powerful position among Black officials in Washington. Before joining the New Deal, she had forged a distinguished career as an educator, women’s club movement leader, and civil rights advocate. Bethune was the founder and president of Bethune-Cookman College and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). In 1940, she would become a vice president of the NAACP. Her speeches and regular contributions to Black newspapers further raised her public profile, helping her earn the title “The First Lady of the Struggle.”
During this time, Bethune became a close friend and confidante of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She used her connection to ER to bring racial discrimination issues directly to President Roosevelt’s attention and FDR held her in high regard. At Bethune’s invitation, ER spoke at the National Conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth that Bethune and other Black Cabinet members organized in 1937. In 1938, the two friends co-hosted a major White House conference on the problems of Black women and children.
Members of the Black Cabinet acknowledged the power of Bethune’s dynamic personality and White House ties and usually deferred to her leadership. Her offices at the NCNW served as a hub for Black Cabinet meetings and she provided critical support to other Black racial advisers.
“I am writing to urge your support of H.R. 10340.”
-- Mary McLeod Bethune to Franklin Roosevelt, June 3, 1938
In June 1938, Bethune solicited FDR’s support for a bill to increase federal funding for African American education in the South. A handwritten note from FDR’s personal secretary Grace Tully on the upper right instructed the President’s assistant Marvin “Mac” McIntyre “to prepare reply after taking up with the Congressman who is responsible for it.”
AR 2023.1.71/Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Learn more about Bethune in our current special exhibition BLACK AMERICANS, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND THE ROOSEVELTS, 1932-1962: https://www.fdrlibrary.org/civil-rights-special-exhibit
It's inauguration day - the original one that is! FDR's first inauguration in 1933 was the last inauguration held on March 4th.
This #LeapDay be sure to get in your practice for the running high kick! FDR placed first in this Groton School competition in 1897.
FDR used his authority to provide opportunities for Black Americans in the Federal government. In this note, the President suggests to the Archivist of the United States R.D.W. Connor that he consider a position for a Black professional at the National Archives. Learn more about the role of Black Americans in the New Deal in our special exhibit "Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts."
In this letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary McLeod Bethune uses her personal friendship and professional association to influence the position of Black staffers within New Deal agencies. This behind-the-scenes advocacy recognized Bethune's savvy political approach to creating change not only through external pressure but also through administrative means within the Federal government. Learn more about Bethune in our special exhibit "Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts."
Polish artist Arthur Syzk created this series, George Washington and His Times, for Max Jaffe of Vienna to mark the 1932 bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. The paintings were exhibited at the French Exposition in Paris. In 1935, Polish President Ignacy Mościcki purchased the set and presented it to President Roosevelt. In a letter of thanks, FDR wrote, “I am deeply grateful for this admirable collection of illuminated miniatures depicting incidents of our War for Independence in which Washington was so generously and admirably aided by Kosciuszko and Pulaski.” The paintings hung in the White House until 1941.
Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune Cookman College and an FDR appointee. She used her influence to press the President for legislation and programs to benefit Black Americans. This memo to FDR notes that America as a whole would be better if educational opportunities were extended to Black Americans.
Black leaders found a powerful advocate in Eleanor Roosevelt who often carried their messages, requests, and demands to the President in a way that no one else could. Here, Henry Gray of the Anti-Lynching Bill Committee seeks ER's assistance in arranging a meeting with FDR. Learn more about their work in our special exhibit "Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts."
Happy Valentine's Day! ❤
This adorable set of Valentine's was sent to President Roosevelt in 1943 by the Second Grade Group of the Children's School, National College of Education in Evanston, Illinois.
With these lapel pins, the NAACP and Black leaders linked anti-lynching protest and advocacy directly to democracy itself. Learn more about anti-lynching and Black Americans efforts to fight racial violence and injustice in our special exhibit "Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts."
The NAACP's "Crisis" magazine made anti-lynching legislation a central issue in the 1930s. White allies like writers Fannie Hurst and Robert Sherwood joined black writers like James Weldon Johnson and William Pickens in meetings and symposia to draw attention to the horrors of lynching and its corrosive effect on American life.
Blend, Shadow, Conceal
Blend, shadow, conceal... are we talking about beauty tips? Nope, we're talking about instructional training posters from 1943. The "Camouflage Blinds the Enemy" poster series were a vivid reminder of the right and wrong ways to use camouflage affectively in the field. See more posters in this collection:
Follow along throughout 2024 as we feature more #TheArtOfWar WWII posters from our Digital Artifact Collection.
NAACP secretary Walter White fought for Federal anti-lynching legislation as a means of addressing violence against Black Americans since local communities, especially in the South, often failed to take legal action against the murderers and their collaborators. Learn more about White's courageous efforts in our special exhibit "Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts."