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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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body of decent and respectable women, the very best women, the nicest women that there were in the community, the tops of society, who had turned out on account of being asked to help Irene and me. They came for personal reasons, as well as because they were Democrats by tradition. They had been asked always to be nice to us, to give us a lunch or a dinner or a tea, or something, and they did. They gave us, which is a very important thing, the protection of association with people who are known to the whole community to be the best there is in their own community. That's a very great protection for a stranger going into a community and it was very important to us at this time. So we had their protection. They were on the platform and in the audience. The Democratic organization of real politicians who were going to go along with Smith, because they were Democrats, were there. They knew they might not carry everybody, but they would go along because it was the Democratic party and on account of Robert E. Lee - all that stuff.

As you got further South, down into Atlanta and Alabama, you became aware that there was a somewhat tougher element in the political leadership. They were all for Robert E. Lee, but not for the same reasons that the people we'd met at dinner in Baltimore were for him. The more elegant refinements of his character, intellect and conscience





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