Mary McLeod Bethune: “What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?”

Impact

One measure of the popularity of America’s Town Meeting of the Air was the amount of fan mail its host, Denny, received—generally about two thousand to four thousand letters per week, a remarkable number for a political program at that time. Also, throughout the country, many people formed “listener clubs”: People would gather to listen to the broadcast and then discuss the topic among themselves. Yet another measure of the show’s popularity was civics teachers’ interest in using the program’s content in their classes; for this reason, Denny condensed what panelists said into pamphlet form and distributed the pamphlets to teachers. In sum, America’s Town Meeting of the Air was a popular and widespread part of the nation’s political discourse when Bethune delivered her remarks in 1939, and many thousands of people likely heard them.

To assess any particular impact borne by Bethune’s remarks, of course, would be difficult. But her eloquent and inspired voice was part of a swelling chorus of African American voices in this era that were calling for a nationwide reappraisal of segregation and discrimination. Journalists and authors such as Walter White were documenting the often-oppressive circumstances of African Americans. Charles Hamilton Houston, as special counsel for the NAACP, was launching a legal campaign to end discrimination and inequity in the nation’s schools. A. Philip Randolph, president of the National Negro Congress and head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters labor union, was lobbying for access for African Americans to jobs in the growing defense industry. These and other prominent public figures were impressing on the Roosevelt administration the need to take steps to end segregation, and their efforts began to bear fruit. In 1941 Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in hiring by the federal government and in the defense industries. His successor, President Harry S. Truman, ended segregation in the armed forces with Executive Order 9981, issued in 1948. The far-reaching educational and political efforts of Mary McLeod Bethune contributed significantly to the progress of African Americans through the World War II era and beyond.