This document summarizes the career and impact of Eleanor Hart, an advice columnist for the Miami Herald from 1940-1975. It discusses how her column, "Column with a Hart", guided the local community on issues of gender and race during the post-World War 2 era. The document outlines how Hart used her column to promote progressive views on women's roles and education, and addressed the integration of neighborhoods following Brown v Board through publishing letters from readers on both sides of the issue over several months. Hart's responses advocated for racial integration and challenged conservative gender norms of the time. Her column is credited with increasing coverage of racial issues in the women's section of the paper and influencing public discourse.
1. Eleanor Hart: How An Advice
Columnist Guided A Florida
Community And Addressed Issues of
Gender and Race
Dr. Kimberly Wilmot Voss, Associate Professor
Lance Speere, Visiting Instructor
University of Central Florida
7. “Working Mothers” Letter
• “The mother who seeks employment
outside of the home, unless her husband
is physically or mentally unavailable to
work, should have the title of mother
denied her. Perhaps these are harsh
words. Yet, can’t a great proportion of the
ills plaguing our society be attributed to
the breakdown in family life?”
8. Hart’s Response (in bold)
• “The working mother lazy? She works
doubly hard because she has two jobs
instead of one. Few of her ilk spend
lavish amounts on maid service, gold-
plated lunches and fancy clothing. Her
biggest money expenditure is
competent day care.”
9. Gender: Education
• A Mother: “My husband says a
college education is wasted on
women and you don’t need a diploma
to be a mother.”
• Hart: “Is college wasted on women?
Certainly not – not on all women at
any rate!”
11. Idealist Letter
• “If a Negro family were to move next door
to me, I’d welcome them, regardless of
what these same friends would think. But
the truth is, I will still be living in an un-
integrated neighborhood, leaving behind
me a lot of unhappy and angry people.
Yet, if I refuse to sell to a Negro, I will be
perpetrating the unreasonable, unjust
system of segregation that exists in most
of our city today. Please advise.”
12. Hart’s Immediate Response
• “You can’t ‘please’ all factions.
Whatever your decision, someone will
‘dissent.’ Your dilemma is one that
other residents in this area are facing.
We welcome their comments.”
13. One Week Later: 2 letters For
• “The reason so many people are
against integration is that they are
ignorant of the Negro. Should Idealist
sell her house to a Negro family, I’m
sure her neighbors will find that the
Negro isn’t as different from his white
brother as the bigots, trouble-
makers, etc. would have us believe.”
14. One Week Later: 2 Letters
Against
• “Civil rights should not be taken from
one race and given to another. That is
intrusion of privacy and freedom.”
15. Two Weeks Later: 5 Letters
Against
• “Our freedoms have been tragically
breached. I believe zoning should be
legal in building a neighborhood of a
specific race if a majority so desires.”
16. One Month Later: 3 Letters
• Complexity of issue
• Times were changing
17. Six Weeks Later: Two Letters For
• “As long as the attitude exists that
one Negro family in a white
community is too many, so will the
problems and potential problems.”
18. Two Months Later: Final
Column
• “To follow the crowd instead of one’s
conscience is what the masses of
Germans did while Hitler
exterminated millions of Jews.”