Fireside chat to highlight Roosevelt-era equal rights pioneers Feb. 16

The Lewes Public Library’s discussion series, Fireside Chats: Exploring the Roosevelt Legacy, will continue at 5 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 16, in the library’s fireplace area, 111 Adams Ave., Lewes, and online via Zoom. 

Presenters will be Paul Sparrow, former director of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, and Chanta Howard Wilkinson, Esq. a diversity, equity, inclusion and justice expert. They will highlight the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, and their important contributions to early equal rights initiatives in the United States. They were two of the greatest champions of equal rights for Black Americans in the 20th century. Their lifelong friendship and political alliance began when they met at a dinner for the National Council for Women in 1927, during a period when white women of Roosevelt’s class did not associate with Black women unless they were domestic workers.

Bethune rose to become the highest-ranking Black member in the FDR administration, and together she and Eleanor Roosevelt fought to have more Black men and women hired by the federal government, to support better pay for Black workers, and to have New Deal benefits be distributed to the Black community in a fair way.

Seating is limited, and registration is required. To register for either online or in-person attendance, go to lewes.lib.de.us or call 302-645-2733.