NOVEMBER 2020
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 President Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed in 1863 the last Thursday in November as a national holiday for giving thanks. But in 1939, retailers feared that a late Thanksgiving that year (November 30) could hurt Christmas sales. Traditionally, the Christmas shopping season began the day after Thanksgiving, but President Roosevelt decided to move the date up a week, to the second-to-last Thursday of November. Much upheaval, protest and comedy ensued, leading some to deride the holiday as “Franksgiving.” Democrats favored the switch 52% to 48%, according to a Gallup Poll, while Republicans opposed it 79% to 21%. Americans overall were opposed. That year, twenty-three states and the District of Columbia recognized the holiday on November 23; twenty-two states preserved the traditional date, which some called the “Republican” Thanksgiving; and three states celebrated the holiday in both weeks. Popular comedians of the day, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny and the Three Stooges joked about the confusion over when to observe Thanksgiving Day. A 1941 Commerce Department survey found no significant expansion of retail sales due to the change, and Congress voted to designate the fourth Thursday in November of each year as Thanksgiving Day. Roosevelt went along and signed the bill.
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by Gray Brechin
 October 31, 2020, marked an important milestone in American public health: the 80th anniversary of the dedication of the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. “A strong nation is a healthy nation,” FDR said, praising the NIH’s role in “using the power of science “to do infinitely more” for the health of all people with “no distinctions of race, of creed, or of color.” READ MORE
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By Sarah Peskin
 The Frances Perkins Center has acquired the place Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, considered her true home—
a 57-acre farm that was settled by her ancestors in Newcastle, Maine. When restoration is completed in 2021, the property will serve as the Center’s headquarters and as a living memorial to its namesake. READ MORE
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by Susan Ives
 Jan Roosevelt Katten was a doyenne of dining, décor and design. She brought people together in celebration and support for causes she cared about, including the Living New Deal. She was one of our first friends and earliest advisors. Jan’s 1000-watt smile brightened every gathering, as did her stories about growing up during the Depression in a household of women; having tea and cookies at the White House as a young girl; riding horses at Hyde Park with her Aunt Eleanor, the First Lady. Jan tossed out words like “divine” and “marvelous,” in reference to art, music, horses, dogs, desserts and life in general. She made molehills out of mountains and looked elegant while doing it. She predicted that the Democrats would take back the White House in 2020, and that she wouldn’t likely see her next birthday—her 91st. Jan died on November 5. Even as her energy dimmed, her spirit and smile never did. She was marvelous.
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New Virtual Theater to Debut Eleanor Roosevelt Production
Thursday, November 19, 8 p.m. Online through December 19
 The pandemic-inspired New Deal Theater will debut its first virtual stage production “Becoming Eleanor Roosevelt.” Bay Area actors Loreigna Martin, Robyn Grahn and Anita Viramontes each play the former First Lady at different stages of her life. Tickets $10 at www.newdealtheater.org.
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Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
Biden's defeat of Trump is the most important win since FDR
Biden is the first challenger to beat an incumbent president in a true two-person race in nearly a century—since Franklin Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in 1932.
By Paul Bledsoe
The Hill, November 7, 2020
How President-elect Joe Biden will govern—if he can govern at all
The son of Scranton, Pa., predicted, again and again, that the pandemic would be for him what the Great Depression was to Roosevelt: the challenge that supersized his presidency.
By Andrew Romano and Alexander Nazaryan
Yahoo News, November 7, 2020
No modern presidential candidate has refused to concede. Here’s why that matters.
The formal concession speech has played a vital role in even the most divisive U.S. elections, from the Civil War to Bush v. Gore.
By Amy McKeever
National Geographic.com, November 8, 2020
“Moderate” Joe Biden has become the most progressive nominee in history
Biden is no FDR, you say? Well, FDR wasn’t FDR—he had run as a moderate before the Depression and war demanded massive responses.
By Dana Milbank
The Washington Post, Oct. 27, 2020
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