Eleanor arrives at Madison Square Garden amid lingering anger over Steve Woodburn’s misstatement that suggested official approval of segregation. She supports Franklin to the podium, notes his fatigue, and endures the dizzying attention as the campaign nears its climax.

Franklin delivers a forceful speech promising peace while advocating military preparedness, dismissing Republican fearmongering. Eleanor observes Black attendees and reflects on the contradiction of courting Black votes while denying equal military opportunities, a pressure point Mary is facing within her fractured Federal Council.

Backstage courtesies give way to departure for Washington. On the platform at Penn Station, Woodburn is late; a commotion erupts as a man breaks through security and kicks a Black NYPD officer to the ground. Eleanor and Franklin watch in shock as the injured officer is taken away; the assailant is revealed to be Woodburn.

Seizing the moment, Eleanor demands that Franklin force Woodburn to issue a public apology to the NYPD and a correction of his mischaracterization. Franklin agrees to require the apology and clarification and to push for inclusion of Black soldiers in the officer corps and the appointment of senior Black leaders in the War Department, including a brigadier general and an undersecretary. He admits that Mary—and Eleanor—were right about Woodburn.