America 1939
By: Sherry Blair
Tags: America, Wizard Of Oz, Generation, History, Work

The San Francisco- Oakland Bay Bridge had been built during that depression and opened in 1936. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937. Treasure Island was completed just in time to hold the Golden Gate International Exposition opening on February 18th, 1939.

During the opening ceremonies, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke on the radio:

“As the boundaries of human intercourse are widened by giant strides of trade and travel, it is of vital import that the bonds of human understanding be maintained, enlarged and strengthened rapidly. Unity of the Pacific nations is America’s concern and responsibility; their onward progress deserves now a recognition that will be a stimulus as well.

Washington is remote from the Pacific. San Francisco stands at the doorway to the sea that roars upon the shores of all these nations, and so to the Golden Gate International Exposition I gladly entrust a solemn duty. May this, America’s World’s Fair on the Pacific in 1939, truly serve all nations in symbolizing their destinies, one with every other, through the ages to come. — Wikipedia

In April, there were other reasons to celebrate. Although Eleanor Roosevelt had been a hero of mine for many years, it wasn’t until I was almost seventy years old that I learned the story of Marian Anderson. It had been omitted from my history books because neither black history nor women’s studies had even been imagined, much less made part of the curriculum, when I went to school. Nevertheless, it was certainly a reason to celebrate.

The simple story is that Marian Anderson, world famous singer, was banned from singing at Constitution Hall by the D.A.R. (the Daughters of the American Revolution) because she was black. The school board also refused her the use of an all white high school in Washington, D.C. for the same reason. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s response was to resign her own membership in the D.A.R. and to arrange for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial instead.

Videos of Anderson’s performance that Easter Sunday can now be seen by everyone on You Tube. Knowing the story and seeing her sing, still brings tears to my eyes. What is clear to me is that Marian Anderson and Eleanor Roosevelt, two women, one of them black, were there ahead of Martin Luther King and opened the way for the March on Washington twenty four years later.

John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath was published in April.

“At the time of publication, Steinbeck’s novel “was a phenomenon on the scale of a national event. It was publicly banned and burned by citizens, it was debated on national talk radio; but above all, it was read.

“Part of its impact stemmed from its passionate depiction of the plight of the poor, and in fact, many of Steinbeck’s contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes, ‘Steinbeck was attacked as a propagandist and a socialist from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The most fervent of these attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California; they were displeased with the book’s depiction of California farmers’ attitudes and conduct toward the migrants. They denounced the book as a ‘pack of lies’ and labeled it ‘communist propaganda’. Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel and argued their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers’ spirit.”~ Wikipedia