By Judy Rothman and Jack Rothman
When I heard Sarah Palin, in her acceptance speech at the Republican convention, say that community organizers have no responsibility, I hurled my handful of pistachios at the TV screen. "I sure am glad Eleanor Roosevelt isn't around to witness this!" I shouted out. I was carried back to my special car ride with Mrs. Roosevelt in the late 50s when I sat beside her in the rear seat of our battered Chevy while my husband, Jack, chauffeured us to what he called "the tri-communities"--the towns of Laurelton, Springfield Gardens, and Rosedale, in Queens. I was in my mid-20s and newly-married to Jack, who worked for the New York City Youth Board as a community organizer. His job, full-time and then some, took him out many weekday evenings--and very often to meetings and activities on the weekends. I rarely went with him to those events. But this particular night, the scheduled guest at the meeting of the Tri-Communities Council was Eleanor Roosevelt, and I wasn't going to miss that.
Jack was intensively involved in helping the residents of the tri-communities--a racially-mixed, rapidly-changing neighborhood of single-family homes and small duplexes--fight "blockbusting." The homeowners loved where they lived but felt under extreme pressure from realtors who were using intimidating tactics to panic white residents into pulling up roots and moving. Their most widely-used approach was warning residents that more people "not like them" would be moving into the neighborhood, leading to run-down housing and a precipitous drop in property values. "Do you want to be the last white family left on the block?" went the sales pitch. Neighborhoods that were integrated quickly became ghettoized.
As a community organizer, Jack brought residents across racial lines together to form a neighborhood group to educate property owners and fight these scare tactics. Realtors calculated the more sales, the more profits. What happened after that was not their concern. It became the concern, though, of the Youth Board. There was evidence that this drastic turnover of homes and disruption of neighborhood life was wreaking havoc across the city, including a sharp rise in juvenile delinquency and teenage gangs. The Youth Board set out to experiment with means of stabilizing neighborhoods that were in swift, and engineered transition. Jack was given that assignment.
At first, he put emphasis on bringing people together from white and African-American groups so they could form connections and work together on solving community problems that troubled them. Their immediate interests focused on youth-- improving schools and setting up after-school recreational programs for teenagers. The racial change issue was sensitive and received attention after people worked together on other issues. Soon members voiced their apprehension that panic-selling tactics by real estate agents were detrimental and decided they needed techniques to get realtors to change their ways. Bi-racial teams visited real estate offices, factually documented unethical practices used to stimulate home sales, and they brought with them standards on ethical (and illegal) behavior issued by the office of the New York State Secretary, which regulated operations of the real estate industry. Gradually there were signs of progress.
After a time, the group decided to have a community-wide meeting in which they could report their results and recruit new members. This called for a guest speaker who could attract attendance and highlight the meaning of what they had done.
When Eleanor Roosevelt's name was mentioned as an exciting possibility but likely impossible to get, Jack worked with a well-connected lawyer in the group to try to contact her. She was living in a hotel in mid-town Manhattan at the time. Mrs. Roosevelt, long a staunch and outspoken supporter of civil liberties and racial equality, readily agreed to address the group and checked her undoubtedly-packed calendar. But, she said, given the distance between her hotel and the meeting place and the fact that she no longer drove, she would need to be picked up at her hotel and then taken back.
I was so young then. More mature in many ways than most of my peers, but with much to learn about the historic figure I was about to have as a passenger in my car. I remember pulling up to the front entrance of her hotel and announcing our arrival to the doorman who, after letting her know we were there, opened the back door of our car for Mrs. Roosevelt (no Secret Service escort then). At the time, I viewed her mainly as President Roosevelt's wife. It wasn't until later in life that I was able to appreciate Eleanor-- the integrity of her work, the magnitude of her contributions, and her influence on her husband.
Because I wanted to make a personal connection, I sat next to Mrs. Roosevelt in the back seat. I remember telling her about my undergraduate years at Brandeis, a new and innovative university I knew she held in high esteem. Her enthusiastic interest in my life and work as a teacher remained steady throughout the trip. During the ride, Jack, a generally cautious driver, mainly concentrated on getting us to our destination safely. And so, during that trip from Manhattan to Queens some 50 years ago, I pretty much had Mrs. Roosevelt all to myself.
I think the experience that night is the reason why her name flashed in my mind when I heard Sarah Palin downgrade community organizing. Eleanor Roosevelt, who I think of as a first-class community organizer, fully grasped what the work is all about, even if Sarah Palin hasn't the foggiest notion. Mrs. Roosevelt understood that citizens participating at the grassroots level to advance their lives is integral to the American and democratic way of life. What she would likely tell Sarah Palin is she doesn't know the responsibilities of community organizers because those responsibilities come from the grassroots citizens with whom they work, not from a bureaucratic process in the mayor's office.
I can just picture Eleanor Roosevelt's amazement and dismay on hearing that Sarah Palin recently asked, "What is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?" How astonishing that this new "celebrity" on the scene doesn't know the everyday responsibilities of the Vice-President, the office for which she is so energetically running.
Judy Rothman, a first-time blogger, has been a classroom teacher and educational administrator in Los Angeles. Jack Rothman is Professor Emeritus of Community Organizing, UCLA School of Public Affairs.