Why I Argue That It’s Not A President That Did The Most For Blacks, Rather It Was A First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt with a child in a slum in Detroit | Bettmann / Getty Images
It’s Black History Month in the US and its President’s Day today, which got me thinking, who in the White House did the most to help Black Americans to date
Who remembers President Trump’s 2020 campaign comments that he did the most than any other president to help Blacks, besides Abraham Lincoln? “I’ve said this and I say it openly and not a lot of people dispute it: I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. Nobody has even been close,” he said.
And, it is true that Trump fixed it to where Historically Black Colleges and Universities would receive rollover federal funding without having to ask for it, by 14% (approximately $80 million each year). He signed the First Step Act that shortens mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes, which allotted for 90% of Blacks to have their prison sentences reduced. Poverty for Blacks reached a low in 2019, where 1.4 million+ Blacks found jobs, from the time when Trump was inaugurated in 2017 to February 2020. And he worked with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott to set up opportunity zones, where low-income communities around the US could not be exploited by investors.
Ok, this is great but when Trump insinuated President Lincoln did the first most to help Blacks, I sighed inside. In university I took a semester course on Abraham Lincoln, taught by American historian Tyler Anbinder. Lincoln had been my father’s favorite president, and somehow was a president that I had a soft spot for because he freed the slaves. But when I came across this quote by Lincoln in my course work, I was stunned. He wasn’t as pro-Black as history has made him out to be, but I genuinely believe that by the end of his life, his views towards Blacks were authentic and he cared more for Blacks compared to his pre-1863 years. And, it was Lincoln who got the ball rolling to abolish slavery under federal mandate by way of the 13th Amendment.
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermingling with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior. I am as much as any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”
A mural by William Edouard Scott of President Lincoln with Frederick Douglass
It wasn’t until Lincoln became friends with abolitionist, statesmen, and former slave Frederick Douglass, a relationship that was quite complex, but changed after their 1863 meeting, that he began to see the plight of slavery on Blacks. Douglass opened Lincoln’s eyes and in turn, inspired him to see Blacks as more equal beings in the US.
Throughout American history there were presidents that were active and not so active in helping Blacks. The Founding Fathers (some of them presidents) could have ended slavery but didn’t. Those like Thomas Jefferson (yes, he had racist views towards Blacks even though he had Black children), James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had brutal views and policies towards Blacks.
Other presidents like Harry S. Truman desegregated the US military, and John F. Kennedy (by way of his brother Bobby Kennedy) started the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act, and Donald Trump have enacted policies that helped Blacks greatly.
But, I would be remiss to leave out one key figure in the White House that did a lot, and I mean a lot to help Blacks and that was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. A maverick, a revolutionary of sorts, forward-thinking, and compassionate, Eleanor was an activist for bettering the lives of Blacks in the US. Now, her husband President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was quite the opposite and racist.
Let’s not forget that he allowed for 100,000+ Japanese Americans to be rounded up from their homes and placed into internment camps (or prisons) after the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. But, he did not put German, Spanish, or Italian Americans in prisons, though Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini had done atrocious things in their countries. Let’s not forget that FDR did not invite 1936 Berlin Olympic winner Jesse Owens to the White House, though he won 4 gold medals, and White Olympic winners had been invited. And let’s not forget that Black farmers were excluded from New Deal benefits.
“It seems trite to say to the Negro, you must have patience, when he has had patience so long; you must not expect miracles overnight, when he can look back to the years of slavery and say— how many nights! He has waited for justice.”
Eleanor went down South and saw the atrocities Blacks faced, and fought to end lynching. A member of the NAACP, she inspired her husband to enact the Fair Employment Practice Committee, which was an impactful federal move that helped Blacks from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Act of 1963. She worked with Thurgood Marshall to come up with fairer housing and community planning for Blacks. She worked to desegregate schools, and worked to end discrimination around the world. She even spoke out on the hardships Native Americans faced. “Now the Indians in our midst were the original owners of our country, and it seems ironical to me to practice discrimination against them,” said Eleanor in 1960.
American First Ladies can have the power to impact and influence their husband’s policies. Eleanor Roosevelt certainly did. But more than influence, she actively went out and physically campaigned against world atrocities. The most important thing someone can do is get out of their comfort zones and go see the world, go see suffering, and then fight to do something about it. The United States has had some phenomenal presidents who have done some phenomenal things, but when it comes to the issue of helping Blacks advance in the US, I would argue that Eleanor Roosevelt surpasses them all, as the one person in the White House that helped Blacks the most. Why else did President Kennedy’s FBI (under J. Edgar Hoover) have a file of over 4,000 pages on her and her activism work if she wasn’t impactful? How many other First Ladies have had files on their work at the FBI? Eleanor’s activism for Blacks led to her being observed by the US government, a sign that she made huge impact in this area.
