The First Ladies

The First Ladies, co-written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, is a novel that explores the partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Their unlikely friendship, rooted in shared beliefs about women’s rights and education, transcended racial and societal boundaries and played a significant role in shaping the modern civil rights movement. Through meeting at a function to forming a lasting friendship over many years, Eleanor and Mary formed a meaningful, supportive union. They shared goals, and together they worked for desegregation, equal rights, anti-lynching laws, and education for all. The First Ladies is Benedict and Murray’s second joint-venture novel. Their first, The Personal Librarian, is also based on a real person, Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian. They divided the chapters of The Personal Librarian according to “interest and area of expertise,” but decided they would each take a character for The First Ladies (Macomber, Debbie. “Author Spotlight: Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray.” Welcome Home. 23 June 2023). Murray wrote the Mary chapters, and Benedict wrote the Eleanor chapters.

This study guide refers to the 2023 Kindle e-book edition published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Content Warning: This guide describes and discusses the novel’s treatment of racism, prejudice, and discrimination rooted in the novel’s historical era. This guide also quotes the novel’s use of outdated and offensive language to refer to Black people but obscures the novel’s use of the n-word.

Plot Summary

Covering the years 1927 to 1943, the novel explores the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary Bethune, two women who share similar ideas about equal rights, women’s rights, and quality education for all. They meet at a function for women’s rights and quickly connect; Eleanor helps Mary, the only Black woman in the room, feel welcome.

From their first conversation in 1927 onward, Mary and Eleanor stay in touch via writing letters, chatting at events of their shared interests, and attending the same meetings. Through the years, as Eleanor seeks personal independence as Franklin continues his campaigns and is elected governor of New York and as Mary runs Bethune-Cookman College and is a leader of the NAACP and many other organizations, the two continue to think of each other. They help those in need after the Great Depression and campaign on opposite sides (though Mary moves from being a Republican to a Democrat to support Franklin Roosevelt later). Their bond strengthens when Mary reads about an anti-lynching committee in the newspaper. She wants to align with Eleanor to enact anti-lynching legislation, and Eleanor wholeheartedly agrees.

The two women learn from each other—Eleanor learns about race, such as never to assume Black people need a white savior, and Mary learns about political strategy—as they work for social reforms. They work to help the poor, support Black youth, and improve education while also focusing on equality and women’s rights. Eleanor and Mary spend an entire day creating goals for their alliance, including relief for the unemployed and their families, job creation for Black people, anti-lynching legislation (one of their few failures), and appointments for Black people to high positions in both state and federal administrations.

Working toward these goals over the years, Eleanor relishes her freedom from Franklin and from the traditional role of being a political wife, as she’s independent and passionate about social reform. The couple, though successful political partners, had never recovered from Franklin’s infidelity years before when he had an affair with Lucy Mercer, one of his secretaries and Eleanor’s close friend. As with other aspects of their lives, Mary and Eleanor bond over the infidelity since Mary’s husband was unfaithful after the birth of their first child. Though Mary threw her husband out of the house, she forgave him and advises Eleanor not to forget—but also to work through the pain and forgive so she can heal.

As their friendship strengthens, Mary and Eleanor lean on each other for support through struggles such as Mary’s college, Bethune-Cookman, needing more funding and Eleanor’s campaigning for the New Deal and making allies and foes along the way. Eleanor appreciates Mary’s company when Franklin wins the presidency, and she invites Mary to the White House many times. Opponents criticize Eleanor for her work with civil rights and relationships with Black Americans, but she combats their racism by always calling Mary a “dear friend.” With Eleanor’s position, the two continue the years-long struggle of working for equal rights. They make great strides in areas of education and raising awareness of the issues Black Americans face. Mary, born into poverty, is determined and kind. She values education, having founded what in 1923 became Bethune-Cookman College. As president of the university and a leader in national clubs, Mary champions Black rights and women’s education. Mary’s experience and expertise lead Franklin to accept Eleanor’s suggestion and appoint Mary to a federal position as the leader of the “Negro division” of the National Youth Administration.

Their friendship causes backlash from the press and even prompts death threats against Eleanor, but Eleanor and Mary make their unity public with handshakes (in an era when white and Black people do not touch one another) and by attending conferences where they speak together, Franklin’s inaugurations, and other key events. Over the years, they appoint many Black federal and state employees, fund educational institutions such as Bethune-Cookman, push Franklin to publicly state the wrongfulness of lynching and help pass bills toward equality—the greatest of which is for equal treatment and opportunities for Black people to join the military. By the beginning of World War II, Mary and Eleanor are especially proud that Black people serve all areas of the military. When they learn the Tuskegee Airmen still aren’t allowed to fly, though, they make a special trip to Alabama together. They invite Black and white women journalists and announce that Eleanor is going to be the first white woman to fly with a Black pilot. Their goal is to show the first lady in a plane with a Black pilot, thereby garnering respect and active duty for the airmen.

After Franklin serves four terms throughout World War II, the Epilogue covers Eleanor’s grief at her husband’s sudden death. He seemed healthy, but his polio finally overtook him. Mary supports her through the grief, as Eleanor does with Mary’s declining respiratory health. Soon, they’re both excited to be at the United Nations conference together after World War II, working hard for peace. Mary is appointed a delegate of human rights on America’s UN charter, and Eleanor is still a powerful political force in the UN alongside her. The two remain friends until Mary’s death in 1955.