In tearing down the East Wing of the White House, Donald Trump is also tearing down part of the legacy of one of America’s greatest first ladies, one who was most likely a lover of women and certainly an advocate for them and other marginalized people.
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, played a more public role than previous first ladies, and most of her work took place in the East Wing. The wing was built at the beginning of the 20th centuryth century under President Theodore Roosevelt—FDR’s distant cousin and Eleanor’s uncle—and expanded significantly during FDR’s presidency, which lasted from 1933 to 1945.
The first press conference of the first lady
in 1933 On March 6, two days after her husband’s inauguration, Eleanor Roosevelt held a press conference in the East Wing. She decided to hold the event, the first press conference of the first lady, at the suggestion of journalist Lorena Hickok, her great friend and probably lover.
The press conference was innovative in other ways as well. All 30 journalists who attended were women—Roosevelt insisted that only women could cover her event. “At the time, women made up a very small percentage of working journalists, but news outlets had to hire women if they wanted to cover emergencies,” according to an article published by George Washington University’s Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project.
She “worked to make women part of the national political audience and inspired many women to be informed and involved,” the article continued. Roosevelt later wrote that she believed that women journalists would report information that was “especially interesting and valuable to the women of the country.” Of course, many men were also interested in what she had to say, on topics such as the growing threat of Hitler in Europe or the challenges of social welfare institutions,” noted the GWU post. As first lady, she would hold nearly 350 press conferences.
The First Lady’s Office and the East Wing
Because first ladies were more public, they needed an office. Roosevelt employed the First Lady’s first social secretary, and her secretary was based in the East Wing. “Roosevelt used the East Wing for official functions, as a base of operations for his activism, and as a space to interact with groups representing the American people, from the Boy Scouts to the Women’s League of Trade Unions. 19th messages.
Related: 20 queer women celebrating Women’s History Month
The wing “grew into the space where the first ladies kept their offices,” Military times notes beginning with Rosalynn Carter; in the past, some first ladies had offices in their bedrooms. Still, the East Wing already had a lot of activity involving first ladies, even after Roosevelt. Civil rights activists marched outside the wing in the 1960s to get Lady Bird Johnson’s attention, and in the 1970s “Betty Ford argued for a raise for her workers in the East Wing,” as she reported 19th. Laura Bush launched her literacy campaign there, as did Michelle Obama with her Let’s Move! public health initiative.
A lot of “serious work” has been done in the east wing, but Trump’s plans to build a gilded ballroom that cost $300 million will be gone, historian Alexis Coe said. 19th.Another historian told Katherine AS Sibley’s website: “To me, this demolition shows that the current White House doesn’t think the first lady is doing anything of value,” Sibley said. “I’m not talking about [Melania Trump] especially, but the office itself – they don’t know the history.
“Betty Ford gave the best quote about how special the East Wing is: ‘If the West Wing is the mind of the nation, the East Wing is the heart,'” Anita McBride, who was Laura Bush’s chief of staff, said recently. East Wing Magazine. “The borders may be gone, but those East Wing stories must be preserved and shared for future generations.”
Eleanor and “Hick”
It is well established that Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok were close, but there are things we cannot know. And there are those who clutch their pearls at the thought that the esteemed First Lady might have been lesbian or bisexual—certainly not in our community. Here’s what we know about women and their relationships.
Hickok was already a successful journalist when in 1932 met Roosevelt. After escaping an abusive home, working as a maid and dropping out of college, Hickok began her career at a small-town newspaper before moving on to larger papers in Milwaukee, New York and Minneapolis. She fought to get out of the public section and break the hard news, which she eventually did. She joined the Associated Press in 1928. She became famous for covering the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s young son and other major stories.
in 1932 she was assigned to cover for Eleanor during FDR’s presidential campaign. The two women became so close that in 1933 Hickok left the AP because he felt he could no longer be objective about the Roosevelts. After FDR became president, Hickok went to work for the federal government, traveling to communities across the country to research and report on the conditions Americans lived in during the Great Depression. in 1940 she became the executive secretary of the Democratic National Committee and moved to the White House at the invitation of the first lady.
Related: 17 Famous Same-Sex Couples Throughout History
Hickok influenced the political work of Eleanor Roosevelt; she encouraged the first lady to draw attention to the working and living conditions of coal miners and begin writing a syndicated newspaper column, My Day, edited by Hickok. Some historians describe the women as devoted friends, but others state unequivocally that they were in love. “I think Hick was in love with Eleanor and Eleanor was in love with Hick,” said Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of a three-volume biography. Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1999 PBS interview. On whether the relationship was sexual, Cook said: “Well, the fact is, we never know what people do in their rooms… But I have no doubt that they loved each other, and it was a hot, loving relationship between two grown women.”
As with any relationship, there was some tension as Hickok essentially gave up his career for love. However, the women remained close for the rest of their lives, with Hick living near Eleanor in Hyde Park, New York. They collaborated on a book about women in politics, brave women and Hickok wrote a biography of Eleanor. The former first lady died in 1962. after a post-White House career where she was the first chairwoman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hickok died in 1968 after serving on the New York State Democratic Committee before leaving the DNC.
Cook’s biography, especially the second and third volumes, contains a lot of information about their relationship. In addition, about 300 of their letters are collected and annotated Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok, edited by Rodger Streitmatter. Their relationship was fictionalized in the novel The White House Amy Bloom, which appeared in 2018, and 2022. Showtime miniseries First Lady, which starred Gillian Anderson as Eleanor and Lily Rabe as Hick.
Their story will also last in the East Wing.
Related: Illinois Army Captain Says Demons Are ‘Spinning’ LGBTQ+ Rights. He’s running for Congress to change that
This article originally appeared in the Advocate: Donald Trump’s East Wing Demolition Destroys First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s Strange Legacy