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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962 to Addie Frizielle

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09544.01 Author/Creator: Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Typed letter signed Date: 13 May 1944 Pagination: 1 p. : envelope Height: 23.3 cm, Width: 15.5 cm Order a Copy

In this letter from 1944 Mrs. Roosevelt responded to one of her critics, Addie Frizielle, who worried about the desegregation of restrooms and forced social interaction between the races in the government's movement toward racial equality in some spheres.
The First Lady responded to Addie Frizielle who voiced concerns regarding desegregation. Mrs. Roosevelt enumerates the "four basic rights which I believe every citizen in a democracy must enjoy. These are the right for equal education, the right to work for equal pay according to ability, the right to justice under the law, the right to participate in the making of the laws by use of the ballot." This item includes a photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt, GLC09544.02

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
Frizielle, Addie, fl. 1944

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