Lisa asked the crew for questions about Eleanor Roosevelt. Here are her answers.
Lisa asked the crew for questions about Eleanor Roosevelt. Here are her answers.
All right, Lisa, what do you have in store for us tonight?
Lisa:Well, as you all know, but maybe our listeners don't. I asked for questions this time. I wanted to kind of dive into some of Eleanor Roosevelt, but she's got a very long and kind of complicated life, so I wanted to see what you guys wanted to know about her. See, y'all gave me some questions
Drea:We did
Lisa:and I investigated the answers
Drea:sweet.
Lisa:I have actually owned three this, three volume bi. By a Blanche Wesson cook.
Carey:Holy
Lisa:will, I should take a picture of it. So cute.
Carey:Have you read
Lisa:I, you know, honestly, the first one I read in law school, during law school, and then it was volume one. Here I have the book,
Drea:Oh my God. Oh my God.
Lisa:so I
Drea:Lisa, you're killing me here.
Lisa:I'm showing you things, people.
Drea:who, who's Eleanor Roosevelt?
Carey:Shut up.
Lisa:I was gonna kill
Drea:It's so funny that it'd be my first question.
Lisa:if one of you guys me that I would've been like, maybe I'll.
Drea:So I've, I've run the word ungulate by other people. Most people do not know what ungulate means, by the way, just so you
Carey:Is that the thing that hangs in the back of your throat?
Drea:No, no. It's so loved animal.
Lisa:I don't know what that,
Drea:Oh, you weren't here for that episode.
Lisa:okay.
Drea:I'm saying. Okay. We've digressed. Okay. I really do know who Eleanor Roosevelt
Lisa:good.
Drea:just.
Lisa:I'm very proud of you. So anyway, so these three volumes, I did not read them all at once. The first one I bought while I was in law school and it like entertained me when I didn't wanna study. And then the second one, I. I think when I was supposed to study for the bar, and honestly I think I read it off and on over the years. I'm not sure if I actually finished it, but the third one I found recently and I just read it like last year. So
Kathy:Oh,
Lisa:anyway, so covered her whole life. And the author, the biographer is Blanche Wesson Cook, and she is like well respected biographer of hers and. She was featured and there was, oh, I'm drawing a blank of his name. The guy who does those
Carey:Ken Burns. I watched that documentary.
Lisa:yes. She was featured on the one on the Roosevelts. He did one on Teddy Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt. So in case y'all don't know, maybe Andrea doesn't know this, but Eleanor is the niece of Teddy Roosevelt.
Drea:I did actually know all.
Lisa:And the wife of fdr, they're distant cousins. They weren't like
Carey:but still cousins. I mean,
Lisa:That's still
Carey:tree.
Lisa:that tree intertwines.
Kathy:Different branch, same tree.
Lisa:so anyway, she I guess to give just some backstory to her, she had a bro, a younger brother, as. Her mother died when she was young. Her mother wasn't very nice to her. Called her things like, you know, ugly. Her father was an alcoholic, had depression, so he wasn't around much either. So Teddy Roosevelt was kind of her father figure growing up and.
Drea:That's kind of weird, like with the mom because you're like, well, I mean, she was kind of mean. So, but then still she died young. Like when the girl was young,
Lisa:Yeah,
Drea:but she was a mean mom. So like she wasn't around to be mean anymore.
Lisa:yeah, I think that just kind of scarred. Well, and then I think the female relatives that took care of her kind of really didn't take care of her. She ended up I forget how old she was, but she was sent out to a boarding school basically like as a teenager. Early teens in London, so
Meags:Where did she grow up? Lisa? Where did she grow up?
Lisa:She grew up in upstate New York exactly where I, I don't remember because nobody asked me that question. So I did not research that
Drea:Oh, I'll do it. You
Kathy:Wasn't in any of the three books.
Lisa:It was, and I'm sure it was in the first book,
Carey:good question. It
Lisa:but nobody asked me that question when I asked for questions for this episode.
Drea:I'll, I'll look it up now if you keep going.
Meags:sometimes you don't know what you don't know until you hear a little bit, and then you know what you don't know, and you
Lisa:Right, that's true. So what I'm doing, I, so I researched all of it and what you guys asked of me, I did research it, but one of'em was about her kind of secret relationships or one in particular, but she had more than one, and that just could be an episode in and of itself. So that's probably where that one's gonna. But I'm gonna start about prohibition cuz someone asked what was her opinion of prohibition?
Drea:She grew up in Tivoli, New York,
Lisa:Alright,
Drea:but she was born in New York, New York. It's a wonderful town.
Lisa:so what I found out is that prohibition meant very little to Roosevelt. Even Eleanor whose lifelong dread of alcoholism dominated her response to people in situations, she really never considered prohibition a usable deterrent. She momentarily supported the law, but preferred moderation to an actual ban, and she never imposed prohibition on her guests and would herself, had, have an occasional glass of sherry or champagne, which sounds very aristocratic of her. But she also learned that the drive movement or those who supported prohibition also had ties to other popular ideas at the time that she did not agree with. For example, she decided to attend a two day convention of woman on law enforcement that was specifically related to pro prohibition in April of 1924. And she decided to go on her own, even though it had nothing to do with her husband's politics at the time. But she found out that it was politically, And she realized that and acknowledged it later. So the demo, the Women's Democratic Law Enforcement League, was an allegiance between the Dries and the Dixiecrats. So prohibition was becoming a cause for religious fundamentalists, and it reinvigorated Ku Klux Klan and focused on crusade for Dry America. So, you know, Eleanor Hope prohibition would result in less drinking by young people. Than it was for like her generation. But she couldn't be allied with this group that opposed progressive politicians such as Governor of New York, Al Smith, who was a wet quote unquote. In other words, you know, he drank and he was Catholic and was
Carey:He's a big Catholic. They still have a, a really huge fundraiser in New York every year for the Catholic church. It's called the Al Smith Dinner, like it's. On
Drea:Does everybody get wet?
Carey:hear about it. Like people like, like everybody goes to that Democrat, Republican. And do they get what
Lisa:yeah, I've seen, I've seen coverage of that. Yeah. Yes. I'm sure they get, they get wet. So the next question was about Eleanor and her expectations of. You know, of herself as a first lady. So FDR was elected to president in 1932, and she was worried that her talents were not gonna be used, that she would become a shut-in, you know, cause the first lady was supposed to be congenial hostess in the political shadows and just, you know, not really be involved in politics. But All these burdens kind of made her defiant, like just wanted to go into politics all the more because she was basically being told not to. So she wanted to be a player in Franklin's campaign promises. And she plunged into the political fray and she she was countering, basically countering her fear of, of political confinement. Then when Franklin and became president, that was not the first time they lived in dc. Do you guys happen to know when Franklin was last? Had an office in Washington, DC
Drea:before he was president,
Carey:office or
Lisa:Before that Whitney had an office in dc
Drea:why did he have
Carey:Wait, what was the question?
Lisa:He, he was so. actually held a political office in DC prior to being president
Drea:Was he a senator?
Lisa:New.
Drea:Was he a.
Kathy:He was,
Lisa:It was an appointed position.
Kathy:he wasn't. He head of like the party.
Lisa:He was the head of the na, he was not, he wasn't head of the Navy. He was oh, hold on now. I lost my place. He was With Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson's administration. He was the assistant secretary to the Navy.
Carey:Interesting. When did he get polio? Like he didn't, so he was in the Navy and like he got polio later in life, didn't he?
Lisa:Yeah. So Woodrow Wilson. So once he left Wood Woodrow Wilson's administration, then he was kind of, there were. Him and his little old gang, were trying to figure out exactly what his next political steps were. And he was on a vacation when he came down with polio. So basically most of the twenties was spent with him re recuperating from
Drea:Oh.
Lisa:from that. So when Eleanor was last there with Franklin in dc, she was humiliated and isolated because sh, she had recently found out that her husband had an. With her friend and her husband's secretary. Her name was Lucy Mercer, who's FDR Social Secretary. And she found that to be like the loneliest time of her life. So she kind of was dealing with that trauma as she was going back to dc. But when the 1920s, their relationship had greatly changed because a lot to do with F D's Health, young of polio, and. debatable. Some people think she really didn't support him that much during those unhealthy times, but I think she was there for him in the beginning.
Drea:So, wait, wait, wait. I'm just, I'm getting like a timeline thing. So he, he had an affair in the early twenties when he was working in this naval, whatever.
Lisa:Mm-hmm.
Drea:Okay. With his. Okay.
Lisa:It was his social secretary and like a good friend
Carey:And they were married at that time.
Lisa:Yes.
Drea:okay. He's such a dick.
Carey:Yeah. He kind of was
Lisa:Yeah, she got a lot of affairs and actually,
Drea:Was that like the first one?
Lisa:yeah, but that wasn't, but she came back later. Like
Carey:was a movie, I think it was like Hudson on the something, on the Hudson A about. This about his affair with I, I think it was the secretary, but like Eleanor was like in the next room. It was, it, it would be pretty humiliating.
Lisa:Yeah. Yeah, and I think as they got older and things, I think she just kind of accepted that he had these female relationships and she went and had her own. Other relationships
Carey:Yeah, I mean, she was no saying if we're talking about like fidelity to marriage, so.
Lisa:Right, right.
Drea:You can't always judge someone based on that. They're totally,
Carey:all. I mean, she, she wasn't a saint, you know, and
Lisa:no, she was not a saint and he knows he wasn't. And you know, they. They were together and married for a really long time. I mean, they married young as what you did in those times, and I think they loved each other. I just think they just evolved as people and you know, people changed.
Drea:Yeah. Okay. So he had a, he had an affair with her friend in the twenties and then that that ruined their, I guess romantic relationship.
Lisa:Yes.
Drea:Okay.
Lisa:Because yeah, and if there was any sort of romantic relationship left, that pretty much ended. When he got polio,
Drea:Oh, okay.
Lisa:something
Meags:she have children?
Lisa:They had children. They had several children. Of course right now, I don't how many Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They were busy at the beginning of their marriage. Hold on.
Kathy:1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Five, it looks like
Drea:That's a good
Lisa:sounds about right.
Kathy:FDR Junior,
Carey:probably our parents' age. Yeah. Yeah.
Kathy:FDR Junior, Anna Roosevelt, Feld, Elliot
Lisa:No, their par, their children are probably like our grandparents'
Carey:Oh, were they born in the twenties?
Lisa:They were born like in the teens.
Carey:like fifties. Oh
Lisa:No, they were born like
Carey:yeah. Our grandparents' age. Yeah.
Lisa:Yeah.
Drea:Okay.
Lisa:So But Ms. Eleanor, she began changing things up at the very beginning of the FDS administration on March 6th, 1930. Can't talk. March 6th, 1933, she held her first press conference with only female journalists.
Drea:Hmm.
Lisa:And these conferences would establish an understanding and support of all of, you know, Eleanor's different activities, her causes. You know, she became very involved with different new deal ideas. So she would meet with these female journalists and get her ideas out there. So she liked this because it insured jobs for women at newspapers and wire services during the depression. And so the first meeting, there were 35 journalists that met in the red room at the White House. I'm not familiar with that room, but apparently there's a red.
Carey:that there's that many female journalists given the time, right?
Lisa:Right, right.
Drea:We've already talked about two. We've already talked about Nelly Bly, which is a little bit earlier.
Carey:Yeah. I mean there definitely were, but yeah, it.
Lisa:Yeah.
Drea:Yeah. But 35 is a lot.
Meags:But I, I would think that the majority of them were, were social. Quarters.
Lisa:right. And I think some papers, once it got out that Eleanor was going to have only female reporters at this, I betcha there were some papers that went out and got themselves a female.
Carey:Yeah, I mean that is kind of brilliant for,
Kathy:well, there are also lots of women's magazines and stuff, so I'm sure there were plenty.
Lisa:Yeah, that's true. There were a lot of magazines back then. I know also that Franklin wouldn't allow any female. I think that's where the idea kind of stemmed from, was Franklin wouldn't let any female journalists at his pre press conferences. Yeah. Once again, he was kind of a,
Carey:So great.
Lisa:so.
Kathy:awesome though. She's like, oh, you won't have any, I'll have only women.
Lisa:Right. No men. No.
Kathy:Pretty nice. Fuck you to your husband, right?
Drea:yeah. Yeah.
Carey:Conference.
Lisa:So apparently there weren't enough chairs and some of these ladies, oh, I'm sorry. You guys still, sorry.
Drea:We are still laughing.
Lisa:I'm sorry. We weren't so there weren't enough chairs, so some of these ladies had to sit on the floor. And she was really nervous about this first one, but she felt that all the, the journalists enjoyed it, which is kind of funny. Like she was worried that the journalists would enjoy themselves and it's like, it's a press conference, it's work. Right? But I dunno,
Drea:Do you think she served them cucumber sandwiches?
Lisa:I don't think so.
Drea:Just wonder.
Lisa:And she even was kind of, she had a competitive side apparently with her in Franklin, and she wrote to somebody how she was happy that she had her first press conference before Franklin had his first press conference.
Meags:Oh my.
Carey:That's pretty good. You know, a question that I should have asked you, but you can maybe talk about it next time after the relationships. Like, do you know, how did she feel about the ocs?
Lisa:Oh yeah. That there's.
Carey:a big thing
Lisa:Yeah. And there, and I do remember reading, I mean, it's a whole other thing that to get into, but I do remember reading She there was Franklin, you know, he could have spoken out at times and accepted Holocaust, well, not Holocaust there. Holocaust wasn't there yet. But Jewish people that had left Europe and were seeking refuge in the us they were like on a ship and they were stuck. And he wouldn't put them on and they would end up, I don't know where they ended up going,
Carey:they like sent him back to, eventually they ended up back in some Nazi occupied area. I mean, We dropped the ball.
Lisa:Oh, totally. Yeah. Another pbs Ken Burns documentary and the Holocaust America, like
Carey:It is
Lisa:it's a really good one.
Carey:Yeah. Yeah.
Lisa:it's really highly recommend. So, so, Anyway, so that is kind of the answer to that question about her expectation of the first ladies. I forget who asked that question. Nobody wants to
Meags:I did, I did.
Lisa:Okay.
Meags:mean, we can't all ask, we yes, we can't all ask for the salacious details. Although honestly, when I asked the question, I was thinking more about like what she thought about what the, the larger expectations were for the role she was about to take. But I like what you answered it better. It's more interesting.
Lisa:because she, I mean, basically she didn't want to conform to what was expected of her, so I don't know.
Meags:I kind of
Lisa:She felt.
Meags:that was how it went.
Lisa:Right. Like, I don't think she felt, I don't think she was, doesn't come across as judgemental for women who did follow their traditional roles. She just didn't feel that she was supposed she needed to do that.
Drea:Yeah.
Lisa:So
Drea:All right. Next question. What was the next question?
Lisa:Well this is kind of, so there was one question was what did e I have er, in my notes standing for over Rose. Sorry, sorry. So what did Eleanor Roosevelt do after FDR died? And then another question was what was her role in the un? Because the big thing she did after FDR died was she ended up working for the UN or with the un. So I'll kind of go into that part of her life.
Carey:or No,
Lisa:She was not, not ambassador,
Carey:she wasn't an ambassador.
Lisa:no. Okay. But she was, was in the UN. FDR passed away on April 12th, 1945. So like, and he had just been sworn in as president. I think that was the first time they did it in January. So he was just torn in January, 1945. And so he only served a few months of that term. And then Truman became president cuz as he was elected vice president go Missouri. He's from Missouri by the way. Casey didn't know.
Kathy:I knew that
Lisa:I know I love your mom told me the story once that she saw him when she was a little girl.
Kathy:at the library. At the library, they went on a class field trip and he happened to walk outta the library when they were standing on the steps of the li of his library.
Lisa:Yeah, I read,
Carey:That's pretty awesome.
Lisa:yeah. Cause his, I read his biography too. He was really involved in establishing his presidential library and he like worked there like, He was retired, but he'd go to work there
Carey:doesn't.
Lisa:Yeah,
Kathy:Lisa, you'll
Lisa:stood there and gave tours.
Kathy:Lisa, you'd be proud of me. I actually read that biography,
Lisa:Did you? I'm proud
Kathy:that entire thing, and it was like the
Lisa:It's pretty thick and yeah, so actually I haven't been that to that presidential library yet, even though it's like the closest one to me. Because they were re they once covid hit, they. They already had plans in the works to like redo it or like update it. So they went ahead and started updating it and it
Drea:you couldn't have gone there in the first 45 years of your life.
Lisa:I could have if, you know, had when I was growing up, my family really just didn't care about going, doing stuff like that apparently.
Drea:Okay.
Lisa:Well, my dad would have, but, well, you know, he passed away when I was 12, so I missed out on that Anyway, so, Okay, so he passed away in 1945. And then, so er, I can't talk, Eleanor wrote AF that after FTR died, she faced the loneliness that all widows feel facing the future alone after sorry. I like my typing. Makes no sense. So she have to make the adjustments of being by yourself, and I just found this interesting that she wrote about that considering what separate lives that they lived, that she still felt a loneliness after he died, because I guess there was, there was a partnership there. It was a lot different though than a typical marriage of the
Drea:part. It was a political partnership. Wouldn't you
Kathy:They were married for 40 years. This is a long time.
Lisa:Mm-hmm. So she. Was at a luncheon, kind of like a going away luncheon with 60 women of the Press Corps, that she reported that her only plans at the time was to continue writing her columns that she had been writing as First Lady, and she would not accept any public office and rejected an offer actually from a Congresswoman Mary Norton from New Jersey, who wanted to name her to the special delegation that was going to San Francisco. Conference to establish the UN organization. But she refused to attend that conference. She just didn't feel it was right, wasn't proper for her to be there. But, and she never took credit that it was due, that it wasn't due to her, that her husband made the decision regarding the un. She just said that she just wanted to promote his vision and fulfill his legacy. But apparently the whole, you know, agreeing, getting the UN. In there that had a lot to do with her. I'm
Drea:Okay, so the whole, so like the UN was her idea.
Lisa:idea. I mean, there was a League
Carey:a pretty badass legacy.
Lisa:but Yeah. But that,
Carey:union. Awesome. I folded my laundry today.
Drea:I know.
Carey:How do you, God damn. Yeah.
Drea:I know. Okay. So what you're saying is like she, she heavily influenced, I'm just making sure I understand this. She heavily influenced this decision to, I don't know, join the, make the un to start it. Okay.
Lisa:Yes. So ER has become known as the first lady of the world, and not solely because of her role as the most public acted and popular of the US first ladies, but because of her diplomatic interest and skills. Her involvement with US International Affairs began during World War I and continued until her death, according to the biography. So Eleanor, she started this correspondence with President Truman soon after FD R's death. Began in May, 1945 after Truman's b e day broadcast, you know, victory in Europe Day. She. Wrote him this letter just saying how well he, he did and how he was doing as president. And he responded with a 10 page letter regarding the international situation at the time with the Soviets, you know, just how he just didn't trust them and wasn't sure what they were up to. And she wrote back confirming, confirming many of his concerns. And she also gave him practical advice about the Potsdam conference that he was about to attend, you know with Churchill and sta. So she was kind of giving him some pointers on that. She also wrote true about a variety of issues that she had concerns about domestically and it concerns with Palestine becoming a place of refuge for all the displaced Jewish people. So apparently she wasn't
Carey:was she for, for Israel or Not? For Israel. She.
Lisa:think she was really concerned about Israel. I'm not, it was really kinda big.
Carey:have been reason for that. It turns out that there, you know, there may have, there may have been reason for, you
Lisa:They may have rushed into that.
Carey:yeah. Right,
Drea:think it, I, going back to what you were saying though about her giving Truman advice, like you know, like. For foreign relations, it would point to the, you know, like when she was talking about being lonely. My, my thought there is that probably she would've, I think that her husband came to her for the same type of advice. So I could imagine her being lonely, not having him to share kind of that kind of commitment
Lisa:Right, because her mind was probably still going with all these ideas and ways she wanted to help the world. And then, but she, yeah, could no longer share that with him. And you know, men at the time wouldn't listen to her
Drea:Accept Truman.
Lisa:except Truman. Truman is smart. He knew he needed to listen. And also too, I think he wrote to her, He only met Franklin once. They like had lunch once after
Carey:But he was his vice president.
Lisa:while he was vice president. Yeah. So he really had no idea what was going on. So I think the communication with Eleanor kind of helped him better understand what was going on before he got the job.
Drea:How was he? Was he Vice president for eight years?
Lisa:no, he was no.
Kathy:the
Carey:Like four months. Yeah.
Lisa:Mm-hmm.
Drea:Oh, okay.
Lisa:before that, he was a senator.
Carey:the ticket? Like who was on the ticket before? Who was his vice president? I, I, I don't know why you would
Lisa:I don't, I don't remember the names, but there was one that he, I remember the one that was,
Drea:Kathy's gonna tell
Lisa:too liberal.
Carey:pretty unusual for somebody to switch vice presidents. So I
Lisa:Well, that this, you know, he was running for what, his fourth term? His original one just became two, was known as two liberal.
Kathy:John Nance Garner was the first from 1933 to 1941, and then Henry A. Wallace from 41 to 45, and then Truman was from January, was vice president from January, 1945 to April, 1945 when he became president.
Carey:That's crazy. I mean, he probably like had, you know, maybe like a total of six months where he kind of thought about that before becoming it.
Lisa:Right. And I, I remember, right, like people were like, you know, FTI is getting older now. Like you might wanna think this through before you agree to it, but he was kind of pressured. He was pressured into it by Franklin people.
Kathy:was pressured into it, like Right, like at the convention or something. If my memory starts from the, the.
Lisa:Right. So, and FDR wasn't even at the convention. Sherman was at the convention and he talked to Roosevelt over the phone
Kathy:Yeah.
Lisa:and Roosevelt tried to get him, you know, to be on the ticket with him over the phone.
Carey:Was he not there because he was sick
Lisa:No, he was busy with World War ii.
Drea:Oh
Carey:that probably took a lot of time.
Drea:yeah. Yeah.
Lisa:So, yeah, it's kind of insane.
Carey:Yeah.
Drea:All right.
Lisa:right, so back to Eleanor and Truman. So
Drea:We got the Palest.
Lisa:so this correspondence back and forth kind of Became a, formed an alliance between the two of them. So Eleanor, she was kind of amazed. Truman gave her a call over the phone and told her that he was gonna appoint her to the US delegation for the first session of the UN General Assembly in London. And she hesitated because she felt inadequate. I think her whole life she felt inadequate, which is crazy. She is so smart.
Carey:you, I mean, you know, women just struggle with that all the time.
Lisa:That's true,
Carey:You know, I,
Lisa:especially back then.
Carey:I mean, do you think another, like a man would be like, Hmm, I don't know if I'm qualified enough to go to the un fuck no
Lisa:And.
Carey:balls to the wall. I can do that. What?
Drea:Yeah.
Lisa:Well, and apparently I was talking to somebody about you know, job applications and stuff and she was saying, oh, you know, men, they just applied for whatever. They don't even think about whether or not they're qualified. They just, you know, wanna do a job. So they apply for it. Where women
Carey:I know you're like, I don't know. I only have two years experience and they went five. You're like,
Lisa:Right, right.
Carey:Yeah.
Lisa:So, yeah, I've decided now just, you know, screw it. I'm just gonna apply for everything. And now, now I'm, I'm like in over my head at work right now, but that's okay. We won't go there. She, so, Anyway, so she felt inadequate and, but by appointing her to the UN President, Truman gave her the chance to fight for her vision of the future from an official position of leadership. Which she helped apparently for like over six years. And she was found to have a great accomplishment, you know, for women. And it was just a great opportunity for women if, you know, with her having this. So she was an earnest diplomat who frequently succeeded, and if she lost something, she would come back fighting. So she sailed on the Queen Elizabeth on December 30th, 1945, on her way to London. So in the meetings of the US delegation her convictions frequently got nowhere because her male colleagues regarded her as an interloper and treated her with crude misogyny.
Drea:Really
Lisa:It's shocking
Drea:what?
Carey:Oh my God, I can't believe it. God,
Meags:to.
Carey:it must have been
Drea:I know. Can't believe it.
Lisa:in the forties, you know,
Drea:Yeah,
Lisa:then,
Drea:I know. So, so she went, did
Carey:She start the Commission on Women You and Commission on Women.
Kathy:chaired it,
Carey:She chaired
Lisa:well human, right.
Carey:Human
Kathy:yes, but also on she chaired John f Kennedy's administration Presidential commission on the status of women. Is that the one you're talking about, Carrie?
Carey:Yeah. Cool.
Lisa:I did not get that far. I just went with the un. Okay. So even in the publication of State Department papers, the references to owner Roosevelt, baritone of lofty condensation with an otherized otherwise colorless report. They reported her voice as shrill, and she was called strident and school marish. So that was like in the official State Department papers,
Carey:Got a bunch of fuck heads.
Lisa:right?
Drea:So, so, so they're writing nasty descriptions of her in these papers, but what are the papers, what are the papers supposed to be about?
Lisa:I think it's just about the meetings, like what was discussed and things like
Drea:Like, like the notes, like
Carey:Notes. Yeah, but they were a little gender biased.
Lisa:Slightly, slightly undermine possibly her ideas by Yes. So she was insistent and she wasn't gonna be ignored. It was noted. She even banged the table and repeated her words. I'm like, I just can't see her banging on a table. But,
Meags:Maybe she should have taken off her shoe like pk.
Lisa:Yeah, that's what I was thinking when I first read that. I was like, oh wait, no, they didn't say that they took off her shoe, but yes, apparently it's just a UN thing. You start hitting the table, you
Kathy:shoe would probably like, you know, her feet were probably swollen and there were probably a bunch of straps and all kinds of stuff, so she just used her fists.
Drea:yeah,
Meags:needed a, she would've needed a shoehorn to get it back on. Cause that's that generation who like can't just put on a frigging shoe. Like my grandmother. Yeah. Oh.
Drea:yeah.
Lisa:So then, you know, they would just ignore her. So guess what she did? She brought her thoughts to the public because the World's press was more interested in her opinion than anyone else is in the delegation. So go her.
Drea:so smart. I love her.
Lisa:So she felt that these. Other diplomats shredded and preed and generally careless about the sensibilities of other countries. She was surprised how un diplomatic diplomats can be, which I just find hilarious.
Carey:That's really funny. Yeah, I mean that's like you. It, it's just really interesting. It's like things don't really change in, in that. It's just like, like how can you, are you kidding me? You got to the UN and you don't know anything about diplomacy. You know? It's just like, well, cuz you were a dude who was connected,
Lisa:Right. And she, there's a story like they're riding around in this one diplomat just like. What are they talking about? All bomb damage. I don't see everything seems to be fine. And so she started pointing out all the, like holes in the ground and, you know, buildings crumbling and he just moved on to some other topic, like ignored her.
Carey:Yeah, that one had to be super frustrating.
Lisa:Yeah. So trying to get more like a un I was. Find some information quickly. So I found some information on the National Park Service website, you know, from the Roosevelt's home, you know, is now a national park. So anyway, so in February, 1946 in the opening session of General Assembly, The United Nations Economic and Social Council established a nine member nuclear Commission on human rights to recommend a structure and mission for the Permanent Human Rights Commission. So she was not Eleanor Roosevelt was nominated actually by someone from China. Dr. C l Haja, H S I A. I dunno, it's not important. But anyway, so I was interesting. Somebody from China was the one that nominated Eleanor to chair the commission, and all the delegates promptly endorsed her. Endorsed oh, can't endorsed his recommendation. And she didn't anticipate this responsibility and promise to do her best, although her knowledge of parliamentary law was somewhat limited. I'm sure it was
Carey:Who isn't? I mean, there's probably like one person who's really versed in that,
Lisa:who was the expert of pro those, those delegates she was talking about those douches probably don't know parliamentary laws either. So she said that she wants to help the United Nations achieve its primary objective of keeping the peace of the world by helping human beings to live together happily and content. So they were presented with three tasks to draft international declaration, a draft covenant and provisions for the implementation. So there is political discord like immediately within the commission itself, within the American delegation, a lot of infighting. They finally, Convened in 19. In the fall of 1946, an ER was promptly elected the chair. And so for the next two years, Eleanor de dedicated most of her energy to the commission duties which required fierce patience in determination. And then I just noted that she passed away in November of 1962.
Carey:Quite a legacy.
Lisa:yes. My next stuff's all about her personal relationships, which that really is lengthy,
Carey:It sounds like a great sequel. I'm, I'm excited
Lisa:right? I.
Carey:I mean, I, I would love somebody to be like, I need an hour to explain Carrie's love life. would be,
Kathy:Oh, on the next episode of whatever we call this thing, best friends,
Drea:I know. I
Lisa:Friend sharing interesting shit about Eleanor Roosevelt's love
Drea:I know. I'm just gonna throw in some fake shit there too. Just stir it up. Be like,
Carey:Right.
Drea:did you know one of her, one of her bow is an alien?
Lisa:so I'll kinda, I'll give, I have like this introductory paragraph of me about, I'll say that now, to kind of allude to what, what's going on. So It's widely known and accepted that Franklin had extramarital affairs and also Eleanor's childhood was filled with loneliness as her mother died when she was young. And she did not show her much love when she was alive, and her father was an alcoholic and not involved in her life. So, as you know, a lonely child, she. She did le leave a very privileged life. They had lots of money. And her, luckily her family had the resources to send her to a boarding school in England that actually ended up being very good for her and taught her to think for herself and give her some self-confidence. But, you know, having this history tense relationship With her mother-in-law because then her mother-in-law, like just jumped in and became involved in their marriage in the beginning, jumped in when she had her first baby and like basically took over. She didn't feel Eleanor knew what she was doing cuz what she was probably like 18, 20, something like that. So this resulted in Eleanor just searching for attention and affection from her friends. So
Drea:Mm. We'll leave it there.
Lisa:we'll just leave it out there, see what happens.
Drea:All right. Well, that sounds awesome. Okay, ladies,
Lisa:right.
Drea:anything
Carey:was awesome. Very informative.
Drea:you. Thank you, Lisa.
Lisa:Thank you. I tried to make it interesting and not just full of dry facts.
Drea:It's, it's a hard, it's a hard task. Yep. Thank you.
Lisa:You're.
Carey:we'll are we meeting next week?
Drea:Yeah, I mean, I've, I'm up for it. I mean, I I'm sure
Carey:be out. Yeah.
Drea:Yeah, you'll be out. So y'all go,
Carey:know if other people had Easter plans.
Lisa:My Easter plans are all early.
Carey:Excellent it.
Drea:all right.
Carey:See you guys next week.
Drea:Yeah. All right. Take it easy. See you later. Bye.