When you think of the fight for racial equality in the United States, figures like Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks are often the first to come to mind. But there were many others paving the way decades before these leaders entered the spotlight. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in on March 4, 1933, the country was still experiencing the effects of the Great Depression, with the unemployment rate at 24.9%. Black Americans had been hit especially hard — their unemployment rates reached 50%. They also continued to experience racial violence, disenfranchisement, and segregation. It was at this time that Elizabeth “Lizzie” McDuffie entered the Roosevelt White House.
Throughout history, Black men and women have often performed service roles in the White House; from maids to chefs to butlers, the Residence staff ensures that everything in the presidential household runs smoothly. Many work in the White House through several presidencies and some even form close bonds with the first families. At this time, African Americans were largely excluded from white collar jobs. As a result, many worked in domestic roles. McDuffie was no different.
She already knew from personal experience that something needed to be done about the discrimination and violence facing Black communities nationwide. Born in Georgia in 1881, McDuffie grew up witnessing racial inequality. Her parents were both born into slavery and, as a child, she watched her father work as a sharecropper. At age 25, she witnessed the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, which resulted in the death of one of her closest friends, along with an estimated 25 to 40 other Black Americans. The memory stayed with her forever; in her words: “Perhaps because I remembered that fearful march of my people from South Atlanta my job at the White House became a little more than a job. It also became a small crusade.”
McDuffie’s road to the White House began when Roosevelt hired her husband, Irvin McDuffie, as a valet in 1927, six years before becoming president. Irvin served as Roosevelt’s valet throughout his tenure as governor of New York, as well as his 1932 presidential campaign. As his valet, Irvin cared for Roosevelt’s clothing, helped him get ready every morning, traveled with the president, and took care of other very personal matters. The Roosevelts later hired Lizzie to work as a maid in their household in 1933, and the couple moved with them to the White House.
Through her job, McDuffie quickly developed a close relationship with Roosevelt. McDuffie eventually informed Roosevelt that she planned to serve as his “SASOCPA” or “self-appointed-secretary-on-colored-people’s-affairs.” And she meant it. For over a decade, McDuffie informally advised the President about the troubles of the Black community, advocating for racial equality and worker’s rights.
Black Americans had long sought equal rights and treatment, yet little progress had been made at the federal level to directly address racial discrimination. Roosevelt avoided acting decisively on this issue to maintain Southern Democratic support for his New Deal policies. When other Black activists got word that McDuffie had the president’s ear, she became a key spokeswoman for African American concerns.
One of her most significant contributions to race relations came out of her correspondence with Walter White, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). By sharing concerns with McDuffie about the treatment of Black Americans, she noted that White “could by-pass a few government channels through me.” One of these issues was the ongoing incarceration of men who were part of the Houston Riots in 1917, a protest against police brutality led by Black World War I soldiers. McDuffie provided information and context on the case to Roosevelt, which eventually led to the pardon of three prisoners. In 1936, White wrote to McDuffie, emphasizing, “A large part of the credit for this should go to you for your persistent efforts, and I send you my warm congratulations.”
White wasn’t the only civil rights leader to trust McDuffie. As Roosevelt attempted to tackle the Great Depression with his New Deal policies, his administration designed a series of public works programs to create jobs, but these employment opportunities were not shared equally. Mary McLeod Bethune of the National Youth Administration and Edgar G. Brown of the Civilian Conservation Corps quickly identified some New Deal projects and programs that discriminated against Black Americans. Although Roosevelt had chosen to work with Bethune and Brown himself, Stephen Early, the White House Press Secretary, often “blocked them [and other Black leaders] from getting information and requests to the president through normal channels.” So, Bethune and Brown turned to McDuffie — and she helped to make change happen.
Over time, racial justice activists made more headway with the president’s policies. Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet,” made up of Black civil servants including Bethune, Robert C. Weaver, and others, advised him on African-American policy. Other activists like A. Philip Randolph protested job discrimination in the federal government, leading to Executive Order 8802 in June 1941, which banned racial discrimination in defense industry jobs. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt actively engaged in anti-lynching activism, forging a close relationship with the NAACP. McDuffie’s husband, Irvin, also had the ear of the president. As Lillian Rogers Parks, another maid at the White House, recalled: “The public had no way of knowing how often the President actually consulted McDuffie on New Deal projects and plans…We, backstairs, knew that [he] sneaked people into FDR’s Oval Study to talk with him about breadlines and life on poverty row.”
McDuffie’s work, too, went beyond her duties as a maid. Beginning in 1936, she served as the secretary for the United Government Employees, pushing for workers’ rights. This organization of Black workers successfully lobbied for the implementation of a minimum wage, pay raises, and other important rights for domestic workers. She became a well-loved figure in the Roosevelt White House; President Roosevelt’s secretary, William Hassett, recalled that mail for McDuffie sometimes rivaled mail for the president..
Although some felt Roosevelt should have done more to end discrimination or taken a more public stance on lynching, McDuffie believed Roosevelt was a powerful ally for Black Americans. In 1936 and 1940, McDuffie enthusiastically campaigned for Roosevelt’s re-election. She expressed his convictions on equal rights before thousands of audience members in cities across the United States, telling them: “God emancipated our souls, Lincoln emancipated our bodies, but Franklin D. Roosevelt emancipated the civic side of the Negro.” Newspapers noted that McDuffie had a natural talent for public speaking; in fact, she even screen tested to play the role of “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind while working at the White House, though the role went to Hattie McDaniel.
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Ultimately, Black voters supported Roosevelt in large numbers, which points to the success of his New Deal policies in the Black community, as well as the efforts of people like McDuffie in getting out the vote.
Soon after Roosevelt began his unprecedented fourth term, he unexpectedly passed away on April 12, 1945. McDuffie was one of the few people with Roosevelt when he died in Warm Springs, Georgia, and, like many Americans, McDuffie was devastated.
In the decades that followed, McDuffie maintained correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt and other members of the family. Ever proud of her service to the president, McDuffie remained a vocal supporter of Roosevelt’s work for African Americans. Despite Roosevelt’s shortcomings on racial issues, McDuffie maintained that “He was…a true friend of the Negro race without paternalism.” She always treasured her time working for the president and first lady — so much so that walking through her Atlanta home was like visiting a museum full of Roosevelt-era photos, autographs, mementos, and souvenirs.
Hoping to share her memories and experiences with the public, McDuffie penned a memoir titled “The Back Door of the White House,” describing her role as maid, friend, and advisor to the Roosevelt family. Unfortunately, her manuscript did not reach publication before her death in 1966, but McDuffie’s story lives on — reminding us of the power that one woman’s “small crusade” can have in making change and how many unseen advocates influenced the fight for racial equality.
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