the facility to the Red Cross and the Wilson Administration’s Interior Secretary, the conditions of the hospital improved greatly (“First Lady Biography: Eleanor Roosevelt” 1).
After FDR was elected New York’s governor, Eleanor became more and more independent, traveling across the country, inspecting state facilities, and becoming politically active. Segregation between Caucasians and African Americans was an issue in the country and one of the many causes that Eleanor dedicated her time to (Santow 62). To help make her point and to make more people aware, she began to give speeches across the country, speaking out against Southern segregation (Santow 62). Eleanor also accompanied her husband on his inspections of state prisons and hospitals, …show more content…
While traveling the country, Eleanor saw how unfairly people of color were treated, which added fuel to her fire (Santow 72). When Eleanor attended a conference in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1938 for Human Welfare and she was told that she could not sit by her African American friend, but she stayed seated (Santow 73). The police eventually had to come tell her it was the law that blacks and whites had to sit on opposite sides (Santow 73). Not wanting to be arrested, Eleanor moved, just not where they wanted her to move; she picked up a chair and sat it and herself down in the middle of the aisle (Santow 73). A few months later, she resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when they would not allow Marian Anderson, a famous, African American opera singer, to perform in their concert hall (“Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt” 1). Instead, Eleanor helped put together a concert at the Lincoln Memorial and over 75,000 people were in the audience that evening to hear the opera singer (Santow 73). Eleanor then focused her sights on trying to terminate discrimination in the American forces during the second World War (Santow 74). Her efforts were not wasted, and the War Department ordered that the segregation in recreational areas and on government buses cease to exist (Santow
After FDR was elected New York’s governor, Eleanor became more and more independent, traveling across the country, inspecting state facilities, and becoming politically active. Segregation between Caucasians and African Americans was an issue in the country and one of the many causes that Eleanor dedicated her time to (Santow 62). To help make her point and to make more people aware, she began to give speeches across the country, speaking out against Southern segregation (Santow 62). Eleanor also accompanied her husband on his inspections of state prisons and hospitals, …show more content…
While traveling the country, Eleanor saw how unfairly people of color were treated, which added fuel to her fire (Santow 72). When Eleanor attended a conference in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1938 for Human Welfare and she was told that she could not sit by her African American friend, but she stayed seated (Santow 73). The police eventually had to come tell her it was the law that blacks and whites had to sit on opposite sides (Santow 73). Not wanting to be arrested, Eleanor moved, just not where they wanted her to move; she picked up a chair and sat it and herself down in the middle of the aisle (Santow 73). A few months later, she resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when they would not allow Marian Anderson, a famous, African American opera singer, to perform in their concert hall (“Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt” 1). Instead, Eleanor helped put together a concert at the Lincoln Memorial and over 75,000 people were in the audience that evening to hear the opera singer (Santow 73). Eleanor then focused her sights on trying to terminate discrimination in the American forces during the second World War (Santow 74). Her efforts were not wasted, and the War Department ordered that the segregation in recreational areas and on government buses cease to exist (Santow