Note: Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow Paperbacks, and author Shara Moon for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
I’ve watched numerous series throughout the years about the people who worked behind the scenes at the White House and always found it fascinating. When I saw the promotional blurb for this book, I was eager to read it.
Devoted wife, White House maid, reluctant activist…
A stirring novel inspired by the life of an unsung heroine, and real-life crusader, Lizzie McDuffie, who as a maid in FDR’s White House spearheaded the Civil Rights movement of her time.
I’m just a college-educated Southerner with a passion for books. My husband says I’m too bold, too sharp, too unrelenting. Others say I helped spearhead the Civil Rights movement of our time. President Roosevelt says I’m too spunky and spirited for my own good.
Who am I?
I am Elizabeth “Lizzie” McDuffie.
And this is my story…
When Lizzie McDuffie, maid to Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, boldly proclaimed herself FDR’s “Secretary-On-Colored-People’s-Affairs,” she became more than just a maid—she became the President’s eyes and ears into the Black community. After joining the White House to work alongside her husband, FDR’s personal valet, Lizzie managed to become completely indispensable to the Roosevelt family. Never shy about pointing out injustices, she advocated for the needs and rights of her fellow African Americans when those in the White House blocked access to the President.
Following the life of Lizzie McDuffie throughout her time in the White House as she championed the rights of everyday Americans and provided access to the most powerful man in the country, Let Us March On looks at the unsung and courageous crusader who is finally getting the recognition she so richly deserves.
I have to say the book is true to its promises. Written in the first-person from Lizzie McDuffie’s perspective, it details the twelve-plus years she worked at the White House for the President and Mrs. Roosevelt. She also questions her place in the world as a black woman in a position to have the President’s ear. However, politics is never as simple as it seems, and though she regards Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a great man, some of the decisions he makes trouble her.
Lizzie’s husband, Irvin “Mac” McDuffie had already been Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s private valet for twelve years when Lizzie joined him at the White House and was employed as a maid there. Mac was the same age as the President and also suffered from a malady that would occasionally make it hard to help the President with his extended needs due to polio. Despite the lack of experience with the Roosevelts and the White House, Lizzie worked alongside her husband to care for the President, all while tending to her other duties.
The Great Depression was a time when the country suffered, and Negroes suffered especially badly. The book details how some of the New Deal Programs didn’t help them, or how they were often bypassed in favor of helping a white person. Lizzie was in a unique position to have the President’s ear. Reporters and members of the NAACP often spoke to her, trying to get information from her or have her whisper in Roosevelt’s ear. Lizzie was careful with what she brought to the President, and she had some interesting conversations with him.
The biggest problem I had was that I couldn’t tell where the truth ended and the historical fiction began. Lizzie McDuffie did eventually write a memoir which was published in Ebony Magazine. You can find some of it here as well: https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.090%3A9999.01. The electronic edition of the book didn’t have any notes to tell me how much was invented by Shara Moon for the sake of the story and how much came right from McDuffie herself.
However, Let Us March On is a fine piece of historical fiction that takes a deep dive into what this era was like to live in. I loved how often Lizzie reflected on how sheltered they were inside the White House from what others were living through at the time, both the Black community and the country at large. It’s well balanced between dishing what it was like in the White House during these years to reflecting on the slow-moving quest for social justice. I highly recommend it.
You can also find more information about Irvin “Mac” McDuffie and Lizzie McDuffie here: https://www.nps.gov/hofr/learn/historyculture/irvin-and-elizabeth-mcduffie.htm
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Categories: Book Reviews
One of the things I like about some authors (especially those who write either historical fiction or alternate history) is that they’ll often write an afterword explaining how much of the novel is based on fact and how much is “artistic license.” I haven’t read “11/22/63” in a while (eight years now, I think), but I believe Stephen King wrote a lengthy afterword that delved into some of the real people who appear in that novel.
Nice review!
I think the author might have one, but it wasn’t included with the ARC which is a shame. As you see, I did do some digging to get some information on my own. But I would have liked to have known how much of what is here is based on Mrs. McDuffie’s own writing and how much was created by this author.