Read The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice for Free Online Page A

ROOSEVELT ENTERED the social hall with JessieMills, thecamp’s officious director, Pauli Murray was overtaken by “the tremor of excitement” that engulfed the residents and the staff. She averted her eyes and “pretended to read a newspaper.” She had never imagined being so close to thefirst lady, whose unassuming manner belied her background.
    Born in New York City on October 11, 1884,Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the first of three children and the only daughter ofAnna Hall Roosevelt, a beautiful socialite, andElliott Roosevelt, the dashing younger brother of PresidentTheodore Roosevelt. ER’s brothers, Elliott andGracie Hall, were born in 1889 and 1891, respectively.
    Eleanor grew up privileged, yet she was no stranger to personal tragedy. When she was eight, her mother died at twenty-nine of diphtheria, and ER and her brothers went to live with their maternal grandmother,Mary Ludlow Hall. ER’s brother Elliott died of diphtheria in 1893, and her father died a year later at thirty-four of alcoholism and a seizure suffered after jumping out of a window in an apparent suicide attempt. Eleanor was ten.
    In 1899, ER’s grandmother sent her to Allenswood Academy, a private school near London, England, which offered an academic course of study to girls from wealthy families. At Allenswood, Eleanor grew in self-confidence and worldview under the tutelage of headmistressMarie Souvestre. ER wanted to stay at the school for four years. But she came home after three, at her grandmother’s insistence, to make her New York society debut.
    In 1905, ERmarriedFranklin Roosevelt, her distant cousin—fifth, once removed. She would givebirth to seven children in ten years. Her only daughter, Anna, was born in 1906, sonsJames in 1907, Franklin in 1909 (he died before his first birthday, from influenza), Elliott in 1910, Franklin Delano in 1914, andJohn in 1916.
    John was only two when ER discovered her husband’s affair withher former social secretary Lucy Page Mercer. Eleanor offeredFranklin a divorce. His mother,Sara Delano Roosevelt, threatened to disinherit him if he left his family. Franklin promised not to see Lucy again and reconciled with his wife.
    In 1921, doctors diagnosed FDR withpoliomyelitis, which left him permanently paralyzed from the waist down. A rising star in theDemocratic Party before paralysis struck, he had been elected to theNew York State Senate in 1910, served as assistant secretary of the navy from 1913 to 1920, and run for vice president on the national ticket withJames M. Cox in 1920. After a period of rigorous rehabilitation, Franklin resumed his political career with the support of his wife. He was elected governor of New York in 1928 and presidentin 1932.
    ER was glad for the nation, the Democrats, and her husband, but she had “never wanted to be a President’s wife. And I don’t want it now,” she told Associated Press reporterLorena Hickok, who had covered her during thecampaign. Franklin’s election to the presidency meant relinquishing several activities that gave ER personal meaning and self-satisfaction. One such commitment was her post as teacher and administrator at theTodhunter School for girls in New York City. ER had commuted between Albany and Manhattan and kept teaching when her husband was governor. This would not be possible for the president’s wife.The prospect of what her life might become depressed ER.
    Murray, who knew nothing of ER’s sorrows, studied her surreptitiously. Thefirst lady was fifty years old and nearly six feet tall. She wore no makeup.She tied her light brown hair back with a ribbon. Her dress had simple lines. Her shoes were low-heeled and practical.
    Murray’s observations corroborated news stories, such as those written by Hickok, detailing the first lady’s resolve to be “plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt,” despite her new role. She, and not a chauffeur orSecret Service agent, had driven her party to the camp.She had raised eyebrows in Washington’s