Elizabeth Warren praises a segregationist...major gaffe

[tonedevil]

140. If what is true?

I wasn't in attendance, but it seems undisputed that Senator Warren invoked Frances Perkins in her speech Tuesday evening. Ms. Perkins was instrumental in getting work safety legislation enacted following her witnessing the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire. She was also the first woman in a Presidential cabinet, but the activism was apparently what Warren concentrated on. A bit of reading about Perkins and her lifetime achievements convinced me she was a very praiseworthy individual.
Nikki Schwab wrote an article that was printed in the New York Post. In that article Ms. Schwab characterized Perkins as a segregationist based on comments Perkins made in an interview when she was in her 80s. In the interview Perkins expressed her displeasure with the SCOTUS decision on Brown v The Board of Education and indicated she thought anti-segregation was something that had been forced on people. The remarks are certainly disturbing and it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that Perkins said them. Schwab pulled the remarks from a dissertation by an assistant professor at Syracuse University, Steven White. I don't believe the interview was ever published so it really isn't the case that Perkins was in any practical way a segregationist even though she likely accepted the notion that non-white people were inferior.
I'm not inclinded to think that Warren should stop talking about Frances Perkins in her speeches she is a very inspiring individual.