"You must do the things you think you cannot do.”
"You must do the things you think you cannot do.”
Biography
Eleanor Roosevelt was born October 11, 1884 into a family of wealth but brokenness. Her father, mourning the death of his mother, turned to alcohol for solace. This meant that he was absent for the majority of her youth. Nonetheless, she was still able to capture the eye of Franklin D. Roosevelt, her 5th cousin, once removed, and current student at Harvard. They engaged in a secret courtship that grew into an engagement on November 22, 1903. When he became president in 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt gracefully embraced the First Lady position, and revolutionized it in many ways. Her active participation in American politics changed the role of the First Lady in the future. As her husband was often stuck in the White House due to his polio condition and obligations, Eleanor handled many of the public affairs. She gave press conferences and wrote a newspaper column. Even after FDR's death, Eleanor joined the United Nations and focused a lot of energy on the women and human rights issues. Eleanor became FDR's diplomat throughout his years as president, enabling him to travel the span of the country with her, and to hear her updates on the state of the nation during the Great Depression. Nonetheless, Eleanor Roosevelt remains to be an important figure in WWII.
Contributions
Eleanor Roosevelt acted as the face of the Roosevelt Administration amongst the common citizens of America, and she aided her husband throughout the presidency in ways far greater than any other First Lady had up to that date. FDR almost left politics permanently when he was stricken by polio in 1921. He was paralyzed from the waist down. Eleanor, though, tenaciously nursed her husband back to health and campaigned for him when he was ill. It is argued that without her, he might never have become president. She was involved in various humanitarian causes throughout her life. She worked for political, racial, and social justice. American children, American workers, women's reform leaders, and African American or other minority reformers would write letters to her asking for her aid in their cause. Eleanor diligently took up these different groups and pushed for aid to them in any way she could. She traveled the United States acting as her husband's eyes and ears, and she wrote a newspaper column called "My Day" from 1935-1962 where she would communicate her positions on a variety of social and political issues. Eleanor Roosevelt was game-changing on the First Lady platform, and several of her predecessors would refer to her as a guide to being influential in office.
Primary Source Links
Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt Regarding Anti-Lynching Law
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/depwwii/race/letter.html
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Eleanor Roosevelt “Preserving Civil Liberties,” Speech before the Civil Liberties Committee, Chicago, Illinois, March 14, 1940
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/2Preserve.pdf
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Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to president general of the DAR. February 25, 1939
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/eleanor.htm
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/depwwii/race/letter.html
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Eleanor Roosevelt “Preserving Civil Liberties,” Speech before the Civil Liberties Committee, Chicago, Illinois, March 14, 1940
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/2Preserve.pdf
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Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to president general of the DAR. February 25, 1939
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/eleanor.htm