, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to give a concert in a private hall in Washington, DC. In reaction, Eleanor Roosevelt, along with others, resigned from the organization.
They had federal officials arrange for Anderson to give a free concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday instead. The denial of Anderson to perform at the private hall triggered a major reaction against racism in the nation. Tens of thousands of letters and telegrams were sent to DAR offices in protest. An estimated crowd of over 75,000 attended the outdoor event. According to a nationwide Gallup poll, Eleanor’s resignation from DAR received a 67 percent approval from the public.
Given that a decade earlier blacks had been roped off across the road at the dedication of the memorial, the integrated concert crowd reflected a major change in public attitudes through the 1930s. In 1955 Anderson became the first black to perform at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. In 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower (served 1953-1961) named her as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. President Lyndon B. Johnson (served 1963-1969) awarded Anderson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, and she received a Grammy music award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991.
William H. Hastie (1904-1976)
Hastie earned a law degree from Harvard University and taught at Howard University in Washington, DC. He worked on many NAACP legal cases. Roosevelt appointed Hastie to a lawyer position in the Interior Department, and he became part of Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet.” In 1937 Roosevelt appointed Hastie the first black federal judge in American history, as district court judge in the Virgin Islands. In 1939 he returned to Howard University as law school dean. During World War II he served as a civilian aide to the secretary of war. In 1946 President Harry Truman (served 1945-1953) appointed Hastie governor of the Virgin Islands, and in 1949 he was appointed judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Harold Ickes (1874-1952)
A social activist his entire career, Ickes served as secretary of interior to Roosevelt. He had earlier been president of the Chicago chapter of the NAACP. Ickes was Roosevelt’s key advisor on black issues. Ickes, through his own initiative, took measures to end segregation in the Interior Department by hiring black lawyers, engineers, and architects. Ickes established the first minority quota hiring system. He demanded that all Public Works Administration contractors employ black workers in proportion to the number of blacks living in the local area of the particular project.
Joe Louis (1914-1981)
Louis, a large black man born in Alabama and raised in Detroit, became a professional boxer in 1934. He won the heavyweight title in June 1937 by knocking out white boxer James J. Braddock. The rise of Louis as a champion prize-fighter made him a folk hero among black Americans during a difficult period. His victories over whites, particularly German fighters, gave a great moral lift to black Americans in their quest to gain racial equality. Louis held the world heavyweight boxing championship longer than any other boxer. He retired from the ring in 1949 and later had an unsuccessful comeback attempt.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
Eleanor married Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1905 and raised five children while her husband chased political ambitions. Following volunteer work during World War I, including Red Cross activities, Eleanor chose the course of social reformer and political activist and became active in the Democratic Party. She supported child labor laws, legislation to protect women, and social services to mothers and children. In the 1930s Eleanor took up the cause of black Americans, promoting anti-lynching laws and bringing NAACP leaders to the White House. She became very popular among the black population for promoting their issues at such a high level.
Robert C. Weaver (1907-1997)
Roosevelt appointed Weaver in 1933 as an advisor on black economic problems and a member of Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet.” 