Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt were generally forward-thinking for their time. The First Couple has a legacy of remembering the “forgotten man.” Even when FDR, afflicted with polio, became too disabled to travel around the country, his wife Eleanor became his eyes and ears, advising him in his role as President, while also taking up social issues of her own. Eleanor Roosevelt was a lifelong advocate of equal rights, and used her position as First Lady to further that idea. However, she was always faced with some opposition along the way. When she received a letter from a white American woman expressing concern about sharing public restrooms with African Americans, she responded with the four basic rights she believes every American should have. Her tone, as well as her very logical argument helped her to be quite persuasive.
Throughout her letter to Miss Frizielle, the woman who had expressed her concerns about desegregation, Eleanor Roosevelt holds a polite, yet matter-of-fact tone. She uses rather brief sentences with minimal artistic additions, all ending in periods. This contributes to the creation of her matter-of-fact tone, as can be seen to be established in the first paragraph: “I have not advocated social equality between colored and white people. That is a personal thing which nobody can advocate.” She is short and to the point, but never strays into disrespect. She evenly counters Miss Frizielle’s argument throughout, but does not attack the woman for her beliefs. In fact, as shown in the first paragraph, she expresses that one cannot force another to change his or her beliefs, and would never advocate for such a thing.
Additionally, Eleanor Roosevelt bases her argument strongly on logic. Though she has no facts to prove her point, she uses inductive reasoning to reach her conclusion. “I am sure it is true that here in Washington you have found some discourteous colored people,” she writes. “I have found colored people who were discourteous, and I have also found white people who were discourteous.” She aims for Miss Frizielle to see that if there are some discourteous white people and there are some discourteous colored people, it is fair to say that skin color is not a good indicator of one’s personality, thus invalidating that part of Miss Frizielle’s argument. She makes a similar inductive argument at the end: “If you have to use the same toilets and wash basins where you work, then all of you must have to take physical examinations.” She is thus saying that if your restrooms are desegregated, you must also have equal health requirements, and therefore you are not any less safe than if you shared your restrooms with only other white women.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s use of a polite, but even tone, as well as a logical argument, helps her to effectively convey her message to Miss Frizielle.
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