Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt
FDR Presidential Library & Museum · CC BY 2.0 · source
Name	Eleanor Roosevelt
Caption	Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933
Birth date	11 October 1884
Birth place	New York City, U.S.
Death date	7 November 1962
Death place	New York City, U.S.
Occupation	First Lady of the United States, diplomat, activist
Spouse	Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1905, 1945
Children	Anna, James, Elliott, Franklin Jr., John
Parents	Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt, Anna Hall Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist who served as the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 during the presidency of her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt. A transformative force in American politics, she became one of the most prominent and effective advocates for civil and political rights in the 20th century, using her platform to champion racial equality, economic justice, and universal human rights.

Early Life and Influences

Born into the prominent Roosevelt family in New York City, Eleanor Roosevelt experienced a difficult childhood marked by the early deaths of her parents, Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt and Anna Hall Roosevelt. Educated at the Allenswood Boarding Academy in England under the tutelage of Marie Souvestre, a progressive educator, she developed a social conscience and an interest in public service. Her marriage to her distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1905, placed her at the center of American political life. Her involvement with the Women's Trade Union League and other reformist circles in New York during the 1910s and 1920s, alongside friendships with activists like Lorena Hickok and Mary McLeod Bethune, deeply shaped her commitment to social justice and laid the groundwork for her later civil rights work.

Role in the New Deal and Social Reform

As First Lady during the Great Depression, Eleanor Roosevelt redefined the role, becoming an active partner in the New Deal coalition. She traveled extensively, reporting on living conditions and advocating for the marginalized. She was instrumental in advancing programs that benefited African Americans, pressuring agencies like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to be more inclusive. She strongly supported the appointment of Mary McLeod Bethune to a leadership role in the National Youth Administration, where Bethune headed the Division of Negro Affairs. Through her syndicated newspaper column, "My Day," and frequent press conferences for women reporters, she brought issues of poverty and inequality into the national conversation.

Advocacy for Civil Rights and Racial Justice

Eleanor Roosevelt was a vocal and consistent advocate for African Americans in an era of entrenched Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in the United States. She publicly broke with the tradition of Southern white supremacy within the Democratic Party (United States). She lobbied her husband to support anti-lynching legislation, notably the Costigan-Wagner Bill, and resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1939 in protest of their racial policies. She worked to ensure Black Americans had greater access to New Deal benefits and used her influence to bring Black leaders and their concerns directly to the White House.

Work with the NAACP and Marian Anderson Concert

Roosevelt maintained a close alliance with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its leaders, including Walter Francis White and Roy Wilkins. Her most famous act of solidarity was arranging the 1939 Marian Anderson concert at the Lincoln Memorial. After the DAR refused to let the renowned African American contralto perform at Constitution Hall, Roosevelt, with the help of Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes, secured the Lincoln Memorial for a free public concert on Easter Sunday. The event, attended by 75,000 people, became a seminal moment in the pre-Civil Rights Movement and symbolized federal recognition of the struggle for racial equality.

Leadership in the United Nations and Human Rights

After President Roosevelt's death in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt was appointed as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations by President Harry S. Truman. She served as the first chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1946 to 1951. In this role, she was the driving force behind the drafting and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Her diplomatic skill in navigating the tensions of the Cold War and her unwavering belief in the principles of dignity and equality were crucial to this achievement, creating an international framework that inspired civil rights activists globally.

Later Life and Legacy in the Movement

In her later years, Roosevelt continued her activism, supporting the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. She served on the board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and expressed admiration for the work of Martin Luther King Jr.. She was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to chair the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Her writings and speeches consistently linked domestic civil rights to the global human rights cause. Upon her death in 1962, she was widely eulogized as "First Lady of the World." Her legacy endures as a model of using political influence for moral principle, fundamentally expanding the American commitment to justice and equality.