General Discussion

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,290 posts) Sun Apr 12, 2020, 06:35 AM Apr 2020

Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

I just love this picture. I run this every year.

Fri Apr 12, 2019: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

Thu Apr 12, 2018: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

From 2016: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

From 2013: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

From 2012

From 2011

Itself a rerun

This picture of Graham Jackson is the image of that event that I always think of. As the caption notes, it was taken on April 13, 1945, as Roosevelt's body was being taken away.

The caption of the original photograph starts out:

On the afternoon of the day he died President Roosevelt was scheduled to attend a barbecue at Warm Springs. That afternoon he would have heard Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson, a Georgia Negro, play his accordion. The President had enjoyed Jackson's songs many times in the past. The next day when the President's body was borne slowly past the main dormitory at Warm Springs, where often he used to wave at the patients convalescing in the sun's rays, Jackson stepped out of the watching circle, sadly fingered the strains of Going Home. As he played, C.P.O Jackson wept open-eyed to the mournful phrases of his own lament.

Graham Jackson, from the wonderful Atlanta Time Machine.

60 White House Drive SW

Many more links on Graham Jackson

Please go to Google Books to see the coverage in the April 23, 1945 issue of Life magazine. You will be amazed. (I can't make the link directly.)

Roosevelt's Death:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wEkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA19&dq=Roosevelt+funeral&hl=en&ei=TirDS4iHOIT7lwfx96jaBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Roosevelt%20funeral&f=true

6 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2020 OP

Glad to learn you're doing this. Hortensis Apr 2020 #1

Moving - thank you for posting this. K&R for visibility. crickets Apr 2020 #2

I first saw that pic when I was around six years old. Aristus Apr 2020 #3

Don't miss the links at Atlanta Time Machine. mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2020 #4

New York Times 75 years ago today: mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2020 #5

Paul McGehee's Time Machine -- The Death of FDR mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2020 #6

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)

1. Glad to learn you're doing this.

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Sun Apr 12, 2020, 06:49 AM

Apr 2020

AA leaders and voters of that time played a hugely important role in making the New Deal happen. When Roosevelt was first elected, perhaps half of AA voters were Democrats. Before the end, the numbers of those engaged had grown and virtually all had joined the Democratic Party.

When the anti-Democratic left and the right try to smear the New Deal by claiming it was bad for AA, they're doing a great injustice to all the black New Dealers who worked so hard and successfully to advance their people, and everyone else.