NAACP Demands Federal Response After Claude Neal Lynching; FDR Stays Silent

Following the nationally advertised lynching of Claude Neal in October 1934, NAACP executive director Walter White personally appealed to President Roosevelt for federal intervention and a public statement. Roosevelt, facing midterm elections and dependent on Southern Democratic votes, declined to condemn the lynching by name or endorse federal anti-lynching legislation. Eleanor Roosevelt lobbied FDR privately and met with Walter White but could not change her husband's position. The NAACP's Howard Kester report on the Neal lynching was sent to every member of Congress. The Costigan-Wagner bill introduced in 1935 specifically cited Neal's case.