Before Hillary, There Was Eleanor

So many people seem so worried about smart, liberal First Lady-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton. Imagine, an outspoken woman in the White House--a woman who cares and acts upon what she knows. While many are pleased at the prospect, others prefer wives of public officials corseted and restrained; attractive hostesses unconcerned about issues of state. But Clinton is concerned.

Always politically involved, Clinton has, for years, been among the nation’s “top 100 lawyers.” Moreover, she is the first fully recognized partner in a feminist marriage whose husband says, “You are getting two leaders dedicated to America’s future for the price of one.” He expects her to sit in on Cabinet meetings.

Still, despite the nation’s great need for knowledgeable leadership, despite the significant advances women have made, we have not seen so much political dust since Eleanor Roosevelt left her imprint on public life. And Roosevelt’s activity and involvement set a standard Clinton must work hard to meet.

During the waiting days between the election of 1932 and the inauguration, Eleanor Roosevelt dreaded her future. She feared her life would be devoured by the demands of Washington--then as now, a small, ungenerous town composed of combative enemies, fossilized customs and fiercely competitive visions. She feared she would have to end her work as educator and columnist. She feared the White House would smother her--as she believed it had her Aunt Edith (Theodore Roosevelt’s wife) and her immediate predecessor, the underestimated Lou Henry Hoover.

Eleanor Roosevelt had always admired Lou Henry Hoover, a learned geologist, linguist and feminist--and in all business deals and humanitarian efforts, her husband’s partner. But when Herbert Hoover was elected President, Lou Henry withdrew from public life.

We know now our country would have been cheated of a great moral and intellectual spirit had Eleanor Roosevelt not forged a new role for America’s First Ladies. Many forget how vilified Roosevelt was in the press, how she was attacked by pundits and cartoonists no matter what she said. And she was mocked by insiders as well--members of her husband’s Cabinet and inner circle, who wanted to get the “pants off Eleanor” and on to Franklin.

But Eleanor Roosevelt refused to be silenced. As First Lady-elect, she astounded a New York Metropolitan Opera audience the week before Christmas, 1932, when she appeared between the first and second acts of “Simon Boccanegra” to appeal for Americans overwhelmed by the Depression. “When you come face to face with people in need, you simply have to try to do something,” she said. “After all, this is the richest country in the world. We cannot allow any one to want for the bare necessities of life.”

Over the years, Roosevelt’s influence on the Administration--and the nation--was enormous. Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted and trusted his wife’s vision. He consulted her on all appointments, and they discussed every significant issue. Unlike Bill Clinton, Roosevelt never publicly credited his wife--and she routinely denied her own importance. Still, even when they disagreed, or she went too far on a controversial issue for his political needs, he never discouraged her activities--her columns, her radio programs.

Eleanor Roosevelt always said that women go into politics to to make things better, and men go into politics to win elections. Always pragmatic, and far more centrist than his wife, Franklin Roosevelt respected Eleanor Roosevelt’s principles and her liberalism. Often his own political moderation caused him to reject her efforts--especially when it came to issues of race and racism, of poverty and homelessness, of inadequate health care and underfunded education--the long-neglected wounds in our body politic that fester still. But she would then take her views to the nation, calling for demonstrations of support.

The Clintons enter the White House 60 years after the Roosevelts, and all the great issues that require vision and leadership have again to be addressed. We are again a nation in economic crisis adrift upon an ocean of global chaos. And like the Roosevelts, who overcame a similar period of Republican domination and domestic neglect (1920-1932), they arrive with a mandate for change.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s first public act after the inauguration was a tour of Washington’s “alley slums,” where thousands lived without running water or sanitation facilities. Immediately, she initiated a campaign to provide decent housing for all in Washington, and throughout America. Her work on behalf of affordable housing became a life-long crusade. In 1934, she called for indoor plumbing and toilets in every new home, which astounded Franklin Roosevelt’s advisers. How, one asked, would anybody be able to tell the rich from the poor if Eleanor Roosevelt had her way? “In matters of such simple dignity and decency,” she replied, “we should not be able to tell the rich from the poor.”

Now, Hillary Clinton, far more learned and aware of the needs of America than Eleanor Roosevelt was when she first entered the White House, is in a position to lead a new and long-overdue crusade for decency and dignity. To build anew upon this foundation, one need only contemplate Roosevelt’s efforts on behalf of quality public education and her demands for a national health-care policy.

To do so requires not only vision, but courage. Because no matter what Hillary Clinton does or says, she will be attacked. Convinced that a decent future required bold action, Roosevelt was never muffled by her opponents who waged a relentless crusade against her efforts. And she encouraged other women to organize--to get into the political game and fight.

In June, 1936, during a breakfast in her honor, Eleanor Roosevelt gave the following advice to women in public life:

“You cannot take anything personally.

“You cannot bear grudges.

“You must finish the day’s work when the day’s work is done.

“You cannot get discouraged too easily.

“You have to take defeat over and over again and pick up and go on.

. . . . “Women who are willing to be leaders must stand out and be shot at. More and more they are going to do it, and more and more they should do it.”

“Above all,” she noted: Every woman in political life “needs to develop skin as tough as rhinoceros hide.”

For 40 years, Eleanor Roosevelt took the lead on all major issues. She championed civil rights before any other Administration official, and frequently despite her husband’s opposition.

Outraged by injustice, Roosevelt’s style was personal and direct. During a 1939 meeting that inaugurated the Southern Conference on Human Welfare, in Birmingham, Ala., Roosevelt placed her chair in the center of the aisle between the segregated sections, launching a silent protest--considered shocking at the time--against America’s “race etiquette.”

For all of her efforts, Eleanor Roosevelt was, for decades, red-baited and reviled. In 1940, when she was most fiercely denounced for her activities, Roosevelt wrote her friend, the novelist Fanny Hurst: “I am sorry that all these attacks against me are causing so much grief to my friends. But in these troubled times I intend to go right on saying and doing what must be said and done. And I intend to provide lots of ammunition for attack in the future.”

Today, women are organized and ready for leadership, as Eleanor Roosevelt always hoped they would be. Women’s issues are global issues, and women are united as never before. Although First Ladies who followed Roosevelt denied her legacy, Hillary Clinton will continue an inspiring, energetic and principled tradition.