Word: eleanor
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Full of such grace notes, A Little Sweeter (Verve) is nevertheless a curious album, and not just because it opens with an ambitious but maudlin version of Eleanor Rigby (is there such a thing as a non-maudlin Eleanor Rigby? Could one even be possible given the known laws of art?). Recorded with the pianist Kenny Barron and his regular rhythm section (Ray Drummond on bass and Ben Riley on drums), this is such a simple, straight-ahead shot of vocal jazz that it could have been made 40 years ago, and yet it couldn't sound newer. This...
During World War II, Eleanor remained an uncompromising voice on civil rights, insisting that America could not fight racism abroad while tolerating it at home. Progress was slow, but her continuing intervention led to broadened opportunities for blacks in the factories and shipyards at home and in the armed forces overseas...
...Eleanor's positions on civil rights were far in advance of her time: 10 years before the Supreme Court rejected the "separate but equal" doctrine, Eleanor argued that equal facilities were not enough: "The basic fact of segregation, which warps and twists the lives of our Negro population, [is] itself discriminatory...
There were other warps and twists that caught her eye. Long before the contemporary women's movement provided ideological arguments for women's rights, Eleanor instinctively challenged institutions that failed to provide equal opportunity for women. As First Lady, she held more than 300 press conferences that she cleverly restricted to women journalists, knowing that news organizations all over the country would be forced to hire their first female reporter in order to have access to the First Lady...
Through her speeches and her columns, she provided a powerful voice in the campaign to recruit women workers to the factories during the war. "If I were of debutante age, I would go into a factory, where I could learn a skill and be useful," Eleanor told young women, cautioning them against marrying too hastily before they had a chance to expand their horizons. She was instrumental in securing the first government funds ever allotted for the building of child-care centers. And when women workers were unceremoniously fired as the war came to an end, she fought to stem...