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

[Original version of the column. Text in red are tagged with <sic> (needs correction); text in purple are tagged with <orig> (needs regularization); and text in blue are tagged names of persons or organizations. View emended version]

      

NEW YORK—I believe my readers will be interested to learn that our recent "Melody Fair" evening in Poughkeepsie proved very successful. This was the entertainment program given for the benefit of the NAACP and undertaken as Dutchess County's answer to some of the unfortunate incidents that have happened, where human rights are concerned, in various parts of the country. There was an extraordinary response to the appeal made for cooperation; from that one evening, over $3,000 will go to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It seems to me that this might be copied in many communities throughout the country. It would not only bring in money for the Fight for Freedom Fund but would serve to educate many people to better understanding of the real significance of human rights and freedoms in our own country.

The Communists are using our failures along these lines very effectively in the uncommitted areas of the world. Two-thirds of the people of the world are colored people, and they are steadily gaining their freedom. Above all else, they want to be treated as equals and with the dignity which should be accorded to all human beings. If it does not come to them from the nations of the West, they will turn without question to the Communist areas of the world where they will hope to receive it. Most of them do not understand that Communism will also mean compulsory control in many areas of their lives. Yet if they find no freedom in countries of the West, why should they not turn to that which they know even less about, in hopes that it may give them more than they receive from the areas they do know?

The New York Newspaper Women's Club will hold its annual Front Page Ball on Friday, November 14 at the Hotel Astor. I think many people do not realize how much educational work is done with the money which the newspaper women collect during the year. From the ball, money always goes to two outstanding charities—UNICEF and the Herald Tribune Fresh Air Fund.

Each year, in addition, they award the Anne O'Hare McCormick Scholarship—now raised to $600—to the best woman student at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. Miss Rose Polk, this year's winner, will receive the award at the Front Page Ball. Five awards are also given each year for the best stories written by New York City newspaper women. A scroll and a U. S. Savings Bond are given for the best news story, best feature, best criticism or column in any field, best article or column of special interest to women, and the best series of articles. For this year only, a sixth category has been added—the Peggy Foldes Memorial Prize for the best story or column in the entertainment field. All in all, it seems to me that the New York Newspaper Women's Club manages to do a very fine job and they should be congratulated for it.

E. R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1958, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 10, 1958

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

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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.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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