No ordinary time : Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt : the home front in World War II

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

When white workers heard about the Sojourner Truth project, they demanded the units for themselves and enlisted the support of white residents in the neighborhood where the development was being built. Rudolph Tenerowicz, Detroit’s congressman, carried the ball in Washington, successfully prevailing upon the members of the Conference Committee, consisting mostly of Southerners, to add a clause to the FWA’s $300,000 appropriations bill specifying that “no money would be released unless the ‘nigger lover’ [Clark Foreman] was fired and the project converted to white occupancy.” The FWA capitulated quickly and dishonorably. That same day, the Detroit housing committee was ordered to redirect its recruitment of prospective tenants from black to white. Minutes later, Clark Foreman “resigned.” Civil-rights leaders reacted with rage. Their first impulse was to contact Eleanor. “Surely you would not stand by and see the Sojourner Truth defense homes that were built for Negroes be taken away from us,” Mrs. Charles Diggs wrote from Detroit. Calmly and directly, Eleanor approached the president, emphasizing that both blacks and whites, including Edward Jeffries, Detroit’s mayor, and leaders of the UAW, were firmly committed to the position that the blacks should have the project.