November 19, 2020

The At Home newsletter will be taking a break during the Thanksgiving holiday.

In this issue: Racial Equality and Women's Rights, the Hoover-FDR transition, Countdown to Pearl Harbor, FDR's Wheelchair, a Controversial Thanksgiving, FDR with Turkeys in Cairo.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS
Lucretia Mott was viewed in her time as a dominant figure in the dual struggles for racial equality and women's rights. Join the Roosevelt Library and the Mid Hudson Antislavery History Project – in conjunction with the National Archives Foundation's "Rightfully Hers" programming with support from Maggie & Robert Boroujerdi – for a discussion with Mott historian Professor Carol Faulkner and FDR Library Director Paul Sparrow.

FDR Library Director Paul Sparrow hosts a conversation with Hoover Library Director Thomas Schwartz about the relationship between the two men during the 1932 campaign and the transition between their presidencies, examining their different philosophies in the role of government and the protection of individual liberty and freedom.

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, caught America off guard and galvanized support for the war. What motivated the Japanese and why weren't we more prepared? Hosted by FDR Library Education Specialist Jeffrey Urbin.


PROGRAM ARCHIVES
From June 2017:
FDR wrote a letter to the Emperor of Japan the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor, asking him to help dispel the tensions between the two nations. It never reached the Emperor's hands because the civilian government in Japan was blocking US communications. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Steve Twomey examines the 12 days before Pearl Harbor. Broadcast by CSPAN (Video 43:57 minutes).

FEATURES AND DIVERSIONS


W is for Wheelchair. FDR used this wheelchair during his frequent visits to the Roosevelt Library from 1941-1945. The wheelchair is one of several built to his specifications. FDR had workers cut the legs off of an ordinary wooden chair and mount it to a custom-designed chassis.


On November 25, 1943, Thanksgiving Day, FDR was in Cairo with Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek. This handwritten page is from FDR’s diary of the Cairo and Teheran conferences.
He writes about hosting a dinner with two turkeys he brought from home.

At the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, Thanksgiving was not a fixed holiday; it was up to the President to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation to announce on what date the holiday would fall. His 1939 announcement would result in some controversy.



Footage of the Cairo and Teheran Conferences using a speech by FDR as the narration. FDR spent his 1943 Thanksgiving in Cairo. Made by the US Signal Corps,1943. (9:13 minutes)

SUPPORTING OUR WORK
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"Whatever our individual circumstances or opportunities, we are all in it, and our spirit is good... and do not let anyone tell you anything different." FDR, Oct 12, 1942, fireside chat.

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