The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice (66 page)

“sensation-mongering”
: Warren H. Brown’s “A Negro Warns the Negro Press” appeared first in the
Saturday Review of Literature
, December 19, 1942, 5–6. It gained wider circulation and attention when it was reprinted in
Reader’s Digest
, January 1943. PM may have included a clipping of the advertisement “
The Afro-American Newspapers Answer Reader’s Digest
‘A Negro Warns the Negro Press,’ ”
WP
, January 17, 1943, a point-by-point response to Brown’s attack, with the materials she sent to ER.

“temperate”
: ER to Walter White, January 4, 1943, ERP. This controversy is also discussed in Lash,
Eleanor and Franklin
, 673–74.

“that there are times”
: ER, “What Is Morale?,”
Saturday Review of Literature
25 (July 4, 1942): 12.

“Some of us thought”
: PM to ER, May 13, 1943, ERP.

“
UNDERSTAND COMPLETION
”
: PM to ER, telegram, May 29, 1943, PMP.

ER’s long-standing affiliation
: Brigid O’Farrell, “A Stitch in Time: The New Deal, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and Mrs. Roosevelt,”
Transatlantica
1 (2006), accessed August 3, 2013,
http://transatlantica.revues.org/190
; see also Brigid O’Farrell,
She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010).

When Franklin Roosevelt reconstituted
: “Fair Employment Body Named,”
WP
, July 2, 1943. The other appointees were the Right Reverend Monsignor Francis J. Haas, chairman; John Brophy, Congress of Industrial Organizations; Milton P. Webster, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Boris Shishkin, American Federation of Labor Economics; P. B. Young Sr.,
Norfolk Journal and Guide;
and Samuel Zemurray, United Fruit Co.

Memorial Day
: Coggs, interview by author; PM,
Song
, 195–97.

She called the White House
: PM,
Song
, 196.

“wrinkled”
: Ibid.

“big magnolia tree”
: ER, “My Day,” June 2, 1943.

“mini-reception”
: PM,
Song
, 197.

“spontaneous laughter”
: Ibid.

“tea for a few guests”
: ER, “My Day,” June 2, 1943.

“She asked me”
: PM to Mother [Pauline Fitzgerald Dame], June 4, 1943.

17. “FORGIVE MY BRUTAL FRANKNESS”

“morally responsible”
: “Blood on Your Hands,”
Jackson Daily News
, June 22, 1943.

Murray’s unrelenting schedule
: PM to Mother [Pauline Fitzgerald Dame], June 2, 1943, PMP.

“periods of crying”
: Dr. Brown, University Infirmary, Howard University, bedside notes, May 13, 1943, PMP.

“mental observation”
: PM to Mother [Pauline Fitzgerald Dame], June 2, 1943.

“emotional attachments”
: Ibid.

“terrific breakdowns”
: PM, “Questions prepared for Dr. Titley, Long Island ‘Rest’ Home—Amityville, New York,” December 17, 1937, PMP.

“mad Murrays”
: PM to Mother [Pauline Fitzgerald Dame], June 2, 1943.

“pattern of life”
: Ibid.

“This little ‘boy-girl’ ”
: Ibid.

“done nothing”
: Ibid.

“legal genius”
: Ibid.

One topic was
: “Shot While Playing with Roosevelt Lad: Chum of President’s Grandson Is Victim of Rifle Bullet,”
NYT
, June 7, 1943.

“wearing a rose”
: PM to ER, July 11, 1944, ERP.

“We cannot expect”
: PM to ER, June 7, 1943, ERP.

“four sons in the Army”
: Ibid.

Eleanor Roosevelt shared
: Julieanne Phillips, “Carrie Chapman Catt,” in
The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia
, ed. Maurine H. Beasley, Holly C. Shuman, and Henry R. Beasley (Westport, CT: Greenwood), 79–80, and Jason Berger, “Jane Addams,” in
The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia
, ed. Beasley, Shuman, and Beasley, 1–3.

But the first lady did not share
: John M. Craig, “Peace Movement,” in
The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia
, ed. Beasley, Shuman, and Beasley, 396–98.

“It was very sad”
: ER to PM, June 12, 1943, ERP.

She had thirteen
: PM to Mr. [Marvin H.] McIntyre, June 18, 1943, FDRP.

Some of her female friends
: Powell, interview by author; Katie McCabe and Dovey Johnson Roundtree,
Justice Older Than the Law: The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree
(Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2009), 55–72.

In Mobile, Alabama
: “Mobile Race Riot Laid to Company: OWI Taxes Alabama Shipbuilding Officers with Suppressing FEPC Ruling on Workers,”
NYT
, June 13, 1943.

Clashes between
: “Troops Curb Detroit Riots: 23 Are Dead; Governor Calls on Army for Help as Civil Authority Fails,”
WP
, June 22, 1943.

In Los Angeles
: “Los Angeles’ Zoot War Called ‘Near Anarchy’: ‘Black Widow’ Girls Beat, Slash Woman,”
WP
, June 11, 1943.

“the ugliest brand”
: “California: Zoot-Suit War,”
Time
, June 21, 1943.

“question”
: International News Service, “Zoot Suit Riots Concern Mexico,”
El Paso Herald-Post
, June 17, 1943.

Tempers also flared
: PM to Mr. [Marvin H.] McIntyre, June 18, 1943.

Authorities in Beaumont
: “Rape Sparks Race Rioting in Beaumont,”
WP
, June 17, 1943.

Few public officials
: Louis Martin, “Prelude to Disaster: Detroit,”
Common Ground
4 (Autumn 1943): 21–26; “Makes Race Riot Charges: Group to Aid Colored People Puts Onus on Detroit Officials,”
NYT
, July 29, 1943; and “Los Angeles’ Zoot War Called ‘Near Anarchy,’ ”
WP
.

“personally proclaiming”
: “Blood on Your Hands,”
Jackson Daily News
.

“white cabinet”
: PM to Mr. [Marvin H.] McIntyre, June 18, 1943.

“a determination”
: Ibid.

These alleged clubs
: Caryn Neumann, “Eleanor Clubs,” in
The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia
, ed. Beasley, Shuman, and Beasley, 157–58.

“a white woman”
: Howard W. Odum,
Race and Rumors of Race: Challenge to American Crisis
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1943), 86.

The FBI found
: “First Lady Says FBI Search for ‘Eleanor Clubs’ Futile,”
WP
, September 23, 1942.

On August 2, 1943
: “Harlem’s Tragedy,”
NYT
, August 3, 1943; William Pickens, “Harlem Riot: A Communication,”
WP
, August 8, 1943; and “1943 Harlem Riot Killed 5, Hurt 500: It Began When a Policeman Shot a Negro Soldier,”
NYT
, July 19, 1964. For in-depth discussion of the 1943 Harlem riot, see Harold Orlansky,
The Harlem Riot: A Study in Mass Frustration
(New York: Social Analysis, 1943); Dominic J. Capeci Jr.,
The Harlem Riot of 1943
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1977); and Nat Brandt,
Harlem at War: The Black Experience in WWII
(Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1996), 183–215.

“tramped”
: PM, “And the Riots Came…,”
Call
, August 13, 1942.

“ostensibly for”
: Ibid.

“a woman carry”
: Ibid.

Her frustration
: PM, “Harlem Riot,” in PM,
Dark Testament
, 35, and PM, “And the Riots Came…,”
Call
.

“mealy-mouthed”
: PM,
Song
, 212.

“Mr. Roosevelt Regrets”
: PM, “Mr. Roosevelt Regrets,” in
Dark Testament
, 34.

“heart sank”
: ER, “My Day,” August 4, 1943, PMP.

“be stampeded”
: Ibid.

“unwelcome change”
: Quoted in Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
, 92.

“I have your poem”
: ER to PM, July 26, 1943, PMP.

18. “I COUNT YOU A REAL FRIEND”

“What Can the Negro”
: “Freshmen Hear First Lady,”
Hilltop
, January 29, 1944.

By the midsummer of 1943
: Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
, 92.

ER’s days started
: ER,
This I Remember
(New York: Harpers & Brothers, 1949), 295–310.

“mouth hanging open”
: Stella K. Hershan,
A Woman of Quality
(New York: Crown, 1970), 163.

“Mrs. Roosevelt made me”
: Ibid.

On January 14, 1944
: “Freshmen Hear First Lady,”
Hilltop
.

“I know that this will”
: Ibid.

“Don’t get mad”
: This motto appears as the title of
chapter 20
in PM,
Song
, 232.

Her answer
: Ibid., 217–19.

Even as Murray
: PM, “A Blueprint for First Class Citizenship,”
Crisis
, and Brown, “NAACP Sponsored Sit-ins.”

“moderately priced”
: PM,
Song
, 222.

“rigorous”
: Ibid.

“to indulge”
: PM and Ruth Powell, “Pledge,” May 1, 1944, in PM, “Record of Howard University Student Civil Rights Campaign.”

“such as making signs”
: PM,
Song
, 223.

“twos and threes”
: Ibid.

The demonstration produced
: Ibid., 224.

“smartly dressed”
: Ibid.

“as a personal favor”
: Ibid.