Peaceful doesn't mean defenseless
I'm headed out to the wilds of Western Virginia for some R&R, so there will be a blogging hiatus through the holiday. But before I go, I think I should share the following. The lovely and extremely talented Leigh Nelson dug up the above picture of Eleanor Roosevelt packing a revolver. The picture, from the FDR archives, is at first surprising because it seems to contradict the image of the tireless campaigner for peace and non-violence.
It shouldn't. Here's an account of Roosevelt, in her older years, standing up to threats from the Klan:
NARRATOR
Even in her 70's Eleanor still sparked controversy.
Eleanor Roosevelt:
And the suggestion that we do not consider our own citizens as equals makes them feel there is something really radically wrong in everything that we offer them. So they’ll take a good look at what the Communists offer. (voice - off "What can we do about this?") Face it. And realize that we can’t afford to have two kinds of citizens. We must have equal citizenship for anybody in our country.
NARRATOR
Conservative newspapers, disturbed by her ever more outspoken support of civil rights, dropped her My Day column. Protestors picketed her appearances, threats were made on her life. In 1958 the Ku Klux Klan learned she was going to speak at a civil rights workshop at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
Allida Black
The day before she’s supposed to go, the FBI contacts her and says, "Mrs. Roosevelt, we can’t guarantee your safety. The Klan’s put a bounty on your head, a $25,000 bounty on your head. We can’t protect you. You can’t go." Eleanor says, "I didn’t ask for your protection. I appreciate the warning. I have a commitment. I’m going."
Vernon Jarrett
She was relentless. She made a statement to the effect that if you don't take a stand, you got to leave the impression that you're cowardly. She used the word "cowardly."
Allida Black
So Eleanor flies into the Nashville airport and she’s met by this 71-year-old white woman. No Secret Service. No cops. No young muscle men around her. You know, this elderly white woman picks up a 74-year-old Eleanor Roosevelt. And here they are, they're going to stand down the Klan! They get in their car, they put a loaded pistol on the front seat between them, and they drive up at night through the mountains to this tiny labor school to conduct a workshop on how to break the law, how to conduct non-violent civil disobedience. And she drove through the Klan to do it.
Let that be a lesson in how to deal with violent cowards, and to all of us in the virtues of relentlessness in pursuit of a better world. Enjoy your weekends, everyone.
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