When conservative Democrats gained influence in Congress and the White House in 1938, H.A.
saw The New Deal stall. He was determined not to let that happen on his watch, but events were working against him. With the end of the war we started rolling back some of the price controls on consumer products to encourage business to redirect their efforts from war to peace production. Unfortunately, the transition was not as quick as anticipated creating a shortage of some goods and an increase in prices. This inflation produced a reduction in the
buying power of the average citizen. At the same time a series of strikes occurred to increase worker's wages. The conservative elements in both political parties painted the unions as self-serving, unpatriotic, and responsible for the higher prices. We are working to arbitrate the strikes so they are short and effective for the workers so that we can counter this impression. We are also working with business to help make the transition to a peace economy faster and smoother. We are going to slow down the removal of additional price controls until we obtain guarantees from business that they are ready for such measures. This is not helping H.A. make many friends with big business and the conservative elements in the Democratic Party. The Whiskey Rebels, whose ranks we are told are growing daily, are calling H.A. a Communist. It seems more and more fearful American believe H.A. is an agent of Stalin. One poll shows that over ten percent of the nation has embraced this insanity.
Undeterred H.A. is carrying forward FDR’s vision: national health care, full employment, and continuation of the Fair Employment Practices Commission. We will create the appropriate balance between business and workers to ensure that both prosper so that America prospers.
With
almost seven months under my belt at the White House, I am becoming more
confident in my abilities. Not
everyone is happy with my role as the gatekeeper of the president and I have
had a fair share of battles with some staff members. Fortunately, H.A. has consistently backed my position and
duties.
Naturally,
there are a lot of people in the White House who look like me, but they are
relegated to the positions of maids, butlers, and cooks. Do not get me wrong these are important
positions that are vital to the success of the White House and I admire the
people doing these jobs. One
of the staff members [chief butler, Alonzo Fields –A.S.] told me, his staff was
“helping to make history. We have
a small part, perhaps a menial part, but they can’t do much here without
us. They’ve got to eat, you know.”
I
would just like to see some of them have the opportunity to move into other
positions, but the segregation culture is going to be very difficult to disburse. We have made advances, but they are slow and, so far, small.
Speaking of eating, F.D.R.
and Eleanor actually had some integrated dinners. They knew it would be shocking to many. Their relative, President Theodore
Roosevelt, caused an uproar when he had a White House dinner with Booker T.
Washington. Washington was beloved
by proper society because his stances did not threaten the supposed natural
structure of society; however, having a President sit down and eat a meal with
a person of his color was beyond the pale. Such a thing was just not done, well, perhaps once
before. President Adams in 1798
had dinner with Joseph Bunel to discuss trade and security issues. Bunel was a leader of the Haitian
revolution and was sent to Washington by President Toussaint Louvertute. This dinner was also met with
outrage. None of our founding
slaver Presidents would do such a thing, that is until Theodore Roosevelt.
Sadly,
with the criticism of the Booker T. Washington dinner. The Roosevelt administration at first
tried to deny the dinner occurred, then said it was lunch and not dinner, to
further make the meal less damaging Roosevelt’s staff said that the President’s
wife and daughters had not been at the event. I especially enjoyed this denial because proper society can
never expose their women to these types of elements – it is just not safe. Who
knows what this sage educator, orator, and author would do to them. Unreasonable fear is a power weapon and
it has been used effectively for hundreds of years in this nation.
This
may just have been a coincidence but a day after the dinner Roosevelt issued an
order officially designating the president’s residence as the “White
House.” Coincidence or not, it was
fitting.
In
fact Theodore Roosevelt was almost not president.
When President William McKinley was shot at the World’s Fair in Buffalo
in 1901 it was not the Secret Service, but James Benjamin Parker who subdued
the attacker. Had McKinley’s
doctors been competent, the president could have survived the attack due to
Parker’s fast actions in preventing additional shots from being fired. Parker, a large but humble man, said,
“…the life of the head of this country is worth more than that of an ordinary
citizen and I should have caught the bullets in my body rather than the
President should get them.” He
continued, “I am a Negro, and I am glad that the Ethiopian race has whatever
credit comes with what I did. If I
did anything, the colored people should get the credit.” But they did not. Parker was a celebrity within our community, but the rest of society ignored him. Parker’s efforts were severely
downplayed or simply left out of the official record of the assassination.
F.D.R. helped make advances in employment for my people in an Executive Order, but conservative Southern Democrats blocked many New Deal benefits from agricultural and domestic workers. They feared federal support for these workers would undermine the Southern culture. Although we will lose the vast majority of the south, the Democratic Party must become the leader against Jim Crow and segregation.
I will never forget April 9, 1939, when Marion Anderson sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. An integrated crowd of 75,000 enjoyed this performance, while the southern segregationists howled in horror. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR [the patriotic Daughters of the American Revolution - A.S.], and I fell in love with Eleanor. Just to assuage any fears from proper society, my love for her is completely platonic.
© 2012 Ron Millar
