FDR had no interest in civil rights for blacks. His wife ran with a progressive crowd that held such ideas. FDR humored his wife and her friends as best as he could. He knew that there was a limit as to what the American people and congress would go along with. Johnson was dragged to the signing of the civil rights act by the ghost of JFK and his still alive brother RFK. He would grumble when the issue was bought up that the niggeraas need their civil rights. Even Kennedy himself had his hand pushed by RFK when it came to the civil rights issue. Read a bit of the history on the past democrat presidents as liberal as they were on some issues this was not one of them.
I think you should ask Chaim on this one.
You are right--it was not one of his big issues, but he was to the left of most politicians on civil rights for his day, and he was
perceived as such. Up until FDR, most blacks actually voted GOP because they were perceived as the party of Lincoln and the party that ended slavery. They immediately recognized that although FDR might not be perfect, he was closer to what they wanted than Hoover. Ditto for Jews. They voted for FDR not because they thought he would be good for Jews per se (haha--when have Jews
ever voted for somebody because they thought he would support them?), but because they thought he would be good for blacks, and liberal causes in general.
Don't forget that Roosevelt was the very first president to issue a desegregation order (for the military).
I stand by what I said. Most Jews voted for Obama because he is black, and left-wing, period. Some days I think most American Jews would vote for Adolf Hitler (yimach schmo) if he promised affirmative action, welfare, and unlimited abortion. They certainly voted for a black Hitler.