Eleanor Roosevelt: Resignation from the Daughters of the American Revolution

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

On Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, seventy-five thousand people gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to hear Marian Anderson, the world's greatest contralto, perform. She had entertained crowned heads and elected officials in Europe, had won the highest awards her profession could bestow, and had entertained the Roosevelts in the White House. Her previous performances in the District of Columbia before sold-out racially mixed audiences received rave reviews. Yet Anderson struggled to find an auditorium suitable for a benefit concert for the Howard School of Music after the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to rent its facility, Constitution Hall, to Anderson because she was African American. The DAR is an organization based on lineage; membership is open to any woman who can trace her lineage back to the Revolutionary War era and whose ancestor signed the Declaration of Independence, fought in the war, took part in the Boston Tea Party, attended the Continental Congress, or otherwise served the fledgling nation. The organization was first founded at the state level in 1890 and was incorporated nationally by congressional charter in 1896. The purposes of the DAR remain the same as they were over a century ago: preserving historic sites and artifacts, funding educational endeavors, and promoting patriotism. Throughout the early decades of its existence, the DAR quietly held to discriminatory practices; in recent decades, however, the organization has rid itself of those practices, recognizing that numerous African Americans aided their country in various capacities at the time of its founding.

At first, the DAR denied that race was the reason for turning down the request to use Constitution Hall for the concert, but soon the truth emerged. When the DAR refused to reverse its decision, renowned Washingtonians organized and petitioned the District of Columbia School Board for permission to use the Armstrong High School auditorium for the concert, only to have their petition quickly rejected. Roosevelt debated what action to take on Anderson's behalf. By early January she had already agreed to present the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by a black American to Anderson at the national NAACP convention and had met with the NAACP secretary Walter White and conference chair Dr. Elizabeth Yates Webb to discuss the broadcast of the awards ceremony. She had further invited Anderson to perform for Britian's king and queen at the White House in June and had telegraphed her support to Howard University. Although initially she thought she should not attack the DAR's decision, she changed her mind and resigned from the organization on February 26. Her resignation letter is simple and self-effacing, yet her statement to the DAR's president, Mrs. Henry M. Robert, Jr., was direct: “You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed.”

The power of understatement displayed in her “My Day” column of February 27, 1939, revealed Roosevelt's finger on the pulse of the nation. Carefully portraying the situation in impersonal, nonthreatening terms with which the majority of her readers would identify, she refrains from naming the issue or the organization that had caused her distress. Roosevelt introduces the dilemma simply: “The question is, if you belong to an organization and disapprove of an action which is typical of a policy, should you resign or is it better to work for a changed point of view within the organization?” Telling her readers that she preferred to work for change, she goes on to say that she “usually stayed in until I had at least made a fight and had been defeated.” When she lost, she accepted defeat and “decided I was wrong or, perhaps, a little too far ahead of the thinking of the majority at that time.” But this case did not fit that pattern because this organization was one “in which I can do no active work” and “to remain as a member implies approval of that action.” Resignation was the best option. The next day, the column was splashed across the front pages of American newspapers from San Francisco to New York City. Although others had resigned from the DAR over this issue, Roosevelt's action effectively placed Anderson, the DAR, and Jim Crow (the name given to the system of laws and customs that kept African Americans segregated) on a national stage.

After the concert, Roosevelt worked to keep the issue before the public. That year she presented the NAACP's Spingarn Medal to Anderson at the organization's national convention in Richmond, Virginia. The symbolism of the nation's first lady presenting this noted civil rights honor to Anderson in the capital of the Civil War Confederacy on Independence Day weekend was dramatic. The demand for seats was so overwhelming that tickets for the event were unavailable a week after the announcement was made. On the day of the ceremony, the crowd overflowed the five-thousand-seat capacity of the Richmond “Mosque” (the name given to the exotic theater building now called the Landmark) and spilled out into the streets to hear Roosevelt praise Anderson's poise and courage and urge others to put aside their comfort and complacency to help those whom society discounted.

This incident made Roosevelt recognize the impact she had when she employed her column for political persuasion. In 1939 she was just beginning to use “My Day” as a political forum. The response the column generated showed her the impact she had when she spoke out on a political event. Major public opinion polls revealed that her support for Anderson increased her popularity in all areas of the country, except the Deep South. Roosevelt's distributor, United Features Syndicate, recognized the appeal of “My Day” and in April 1940 awarded her a five-year renewal contract for the column.