The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Thursday—After the lecture last night, we had a delightful party at Governor White's house where two negro colleges brought some of their singers to entertain us. The first group from Piney Ridge School came to sing for me because their quartette had gone to sign for the President at Warm Springs, and they wanted to be in on some of the entertainments! The next group came from Jackson College. Both groups sang very well, and I've certainly had an opportunity in the last few days to compare the various ways of singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", because every group I have heard sing has sung it! It must be a favorite spiritual and it certainly is one of those I like best.

This morning we did a good bit of work on the train, the only interruptions being two Chattanooga newspaper reporters and one or two stations where I had to go out and greet groups of people gathered for a glimpse of "the President's wife" as the train went through.

When last I came to Knoxville without the President, I was driving my own car and I skirted the City by a round about road, but today I have been quite official and every one has been most cordial in their welcome. I went out at once to visit one of the W.P.A. women's projects— their main sewing room. I received a wire on the train telling me that the women would work an hour longer today in the hope that I would visit them. It is a good sewing room and judging from the exhibition of work they must be turning out really skilled workers. In the colored workers room, I asked those who felt they had improved their skill in sewing to hold up their hands, and fully three-fourths of those present did so. They have comparatively few women doing hand work, but some of the baby things are as finely done as one could wish. I feel sure that the woman who made the little dress with fine tucks and feather stitching which I examined, could make a living at that kind of work. There are always enough people in any city who appreciate hand work and are willing to pay for it, especially on children's clothes, and underclothes.

The N.Y.A. projects which I visited were, a library project for colored youth, a Jewish Community Center, a playground and a hospital project, all of which were interesting. The regular workers on these projects have been very helpful in giving their cooperation to train the young N.Y.A. supervisors for a variety of recreational work. Tennessee has a big N.Y.A. program and I gather that they are doing successful enough work to impress the communities with the need for a continuation of their services.

Back at the hotel a little girl who has come four hundred miles by bus to see and hear me, and a girl who wove a piece of material and send it to me some time ago, both came up to my room and I was presented with a child's chair made in one of the N.Y.A. work shops which is really nicely made.

Now we must get ready for tonight's lecture and after it we start for Washington.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Knoxville (Tenn., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 26, 1937

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on: June 9, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated March 25, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 25 March 1937, AERP, FDRL