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tijd July 23 2024, 23:47:16 UTC


Дипломатический талант Эжени Андерсон был вознагражден, когда она стала первой американской женщиной-послом. В 1949 Трумэн пошлет ее в Данию.

On July 13, 1948, the second day of the convention, Humphrey and Biemiller introduced their more potent civil rights plank during Platform Committee deliberations. It was soundly defeated. Even so, the move so infuriated the party establishment that Senator Scott Lucas of Illinois scoffed, “Who’s this pipsqueak from Wisconsin who thinks he knows more about Negroes than Franklin Roosevelt knew?” Writing in his diary during the convention week, Truman condemned Biemiller as a “crackpot.”
Crackpot or not, Biemiller had become expert in the abstruse parliamentary rules that governed the Democratic convention, and he maneuvered to have the civil rights plank put to a floor vote even though it had failed with the Platform Committee. Working through the night and into the morning of July 14, when that vote would be held, the ADA contingent sweated over the language.
A young activist from small-town Minnesota named Eugenie Anderson, one of the few women in that particular boiler room, contributed the breakthrough idea. The plank should wrap itself around Truman and his now-distanced civil-rights commission report. “We highly commend President Harry Truman for his courageous stand on the issue of civil rights,” the final version of the plank stated. “We call upon Congress to support our President in guaranteeing these basic American principles: The right of full and equal political participation, the right to equal opportunity of employment, the right of security of persons, and the right of equal treatment in the service and defense of our Nation.” <...>
The eloquent words that Humphrey spoke on July 14 from the convention dais-his call for party and nation to “get out of the shadow of state’s rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights”-were carried nationally by radio and throughout the Northeast on brand-new television wires and have echoed down through history. Much less remembered is the moment on the podium just before a tremulous Humphrey began to speak, when he was reassured by Ed Flynn, the Democratic boss of the Bronx, “You go ahead, young man. We should have done this long ago.”
Flynn was just one of a number of big-city bosses-Jacob Arvey of Chicago, Dave Lawrence of Pittsburgh, Frank Hague of Jersey City-who delivered their compliant delegates to help pass the civil-rights plank in a floor vote, 651½ to 582½. (One Montana delegate split his vote.) Were they idealists? Hardly. They were worried that, without a surge of black voters in November, their machines would lose down-ballot races as Truman was being routed. For their part, ADA members like Humphrey had spent months prior to the convention persuading those bosses to join the civil rights push. Each faction ultimately recognized its need for the other.
One of Humphrey’s other pivotal contributions to the text tied the civil rights issue to the Cold War. With the United States and the Soviet Union vying for influence in the developing nations of Africa, Asia and South America-and even among liberals and leftists in Western Europe-civil rights could be sold to skeptics as a geopolitical necessity.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/14/what-todays-progressives-can-learn-from-1948-299749

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tijd July 24 2024, 16:08:09 UTC


Mrs. Anderson, a quiet, intelligent and pleasant woman of 40, lives on the good earth of Minnesota - the 400-acre estate left by her father-in-law, the late Alexander Pierce Anderson, inventor of Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice. But she and her husband-Abstract Artist John Pierce Anderson-are hardly horny-handed tillers of the soil. Eugenie Anderson has traveled in Europe, studied music in Manhattan’s Juilliard School. She has an intellectual’s taste in art, books and music. Nevertheless, the appointment, which made her the first U.S. woman to become an ambassador, seemed like a pleasant bit of business for all concerned.
Mrs. Anderson, mother of two children, has long had a passionate, if amateur, interest in world affairs. Five years ago, in an effort to do her bit in molding the world, she got into Democratic politics in Minnesota. She worked diplomatically and well, became a national committeewoman, helped to swing the state to the Democrats.
Her reward was a salute to Minnesota Democrats and to millions of women.. It was expected to sit well with the Danes; the new Ambassador had manners, dignity, quiet but expensive clothes and, best of all, a Scandinavian name. It got India Edwards, chief of Democratic women’s activities, out of Harry Truman’s hair, at least temporarily. And it made Mrs. Anderson happy, too.
https://time.com/archive/6607450/democrats-the-pride-of-red-wing/

At the 1948 Democratic convention, she won the respect of party insiders with a daring maneuver, a mixture of both charm and guile. Anderson suggested Humphrey add a line to his speech praising President Truman for taking a “courageous stand on the issue of human rights.” In fact, Truman had been far from courageous and, despite giving vague assertions of support, had said it was “crackpot” to alienate Southern Democrats by adding the issue to the party platform.
Humphrey was disinclined to defy the president, but Anderson’s rhetorical sleight-of-hand gave him cover to follow his principles while maintaining the appearance of loyalty. After Humphrey’s speech, the convention erupted in applause, the human-rights plank was adopted and the Democratic Party moved permanently to the left.
“The inclusion of Truman’s name made it impossible for some delegates to vote against us,” the Democratic activist James Loeb said. “Eugenie is really a very sharp gal politically.”
Anderson barnstormed Minnesota throughout the fall election season, helping secure a Senate seat for Humphrey and a re-election victory for Truman. Humphrey showed his gratitude by lobbying Truman to give her the Danish ambassadorship.
https://minnlawyer.com/2017/06/28/politics-of-the-past-eugenie-anderson-held-her-own-in-smoke-filled-rooms/

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