Eleanor Roosevelt As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt championed equal opportunity for all races and for women, often communicating the opinions of civil rights leaders to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration. Roosevelt resigned from Daughters of American Revolution in 1939 when they refused to allow <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/76">Marian Anderson</a> to sing in Constitution Hall because she was African American; she then helped organize Anderson's <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/101">concert at the Lincoln Memorial</a>. Roosevelt was also an ally to <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/97">A. Philip Randolph</a>, particularly in the early 1940s when <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/329">civil rights leaders were protesting discrimination in the defense industry</a>. Roosevelt encouraged her husband to meet with Randolph and others in 1940, and again in 1941. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Eleanor+Roosevelt">Eleanor Roosevelt</a> Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. <a href="http://research.archives.gov/description/195319">View original photograph</a>. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1920-1949">1920-1949</a>