General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The good that came out of FDR does not out weigh the bad [View all]thucythucy
(8,039 posts)in America." He met with African American leaders, and in a famous statement told them, "I agree with everything you said. Now go out and make me do it." In other words, he couldn't transform American society and undo several hundred years of racial oppression all by himself.
He did establish the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and pushed for the integration of war industries (which led to the mass migration of African Americans from the rural south to industrial centers like Chicago and Detroit). It wasn't FDR keeping African Americans out of many workplaces--it was segregated unions and white workers who did that. In fact, it wasn't until the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1950s and especially the 1960s that the federal government had ANY substantial power to end discrimination--which is why those acts needed to be passed.
And yes, German prisoners of war were allowed to go places Black Americans couldn't. But, again, FDR all on his own-some couldn't stop that. It took the Civil Rights Movement of the '50s and '60s, the assassination of JFK, the political work of LBJ and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to even begin to address the issues of racist discrimination. Which, as I'm sure you notice, continue to plague us today, three quarters of a century after FDR's death.
The USA isn't a monarchy or a dictatorship, not yet, anyway. To make the sort of massive changes in American society takes more than any single person, including any single president. A president can't just snap his or her fingers and change the culture on a dime. I mean shit, President Obama couldn't stop black men from being shot by white cops in Missouri. He couldn't even prevent a Harvard professor (and one of his best friends) from being harassed by the police of a mid-sized city like Cambridge. So to expect FDR to wave a magic wand and end Jim Crow is hardly realistic, as sad a fact as that is.
You're also ignoring all the work Eleanor Roosevelt did for racial justice--work that she couldn't have done without FDR's endorsement. She brought attention to the conditions of coal miners and sharecroppers, and commissioned photographers to go out and document the conditions of people in poverty, including people of color. Southern newspapers attacked her for being "an outside agitator" and she was widely referred to as a "n--r lover."
So there are reasons why conservatives and millionaires and Republicans have always hated FDR and Eleanor. But as FDR also famously said, "I welcome their hatred."
FDR was a complex man, and his record in some areas is better than others. He certainly had flaws. But he was also the most progressive president up to that time, and it's a shame to see him smeared on what is supposed to be a progressive, Democratic website.