Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt
Roosevelt in 1933
1st Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
In office
January 20, 1961 – November 7, 1962
PresidentJohn F. Kennedy
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byEsther Peterson
1st United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
In office
January 27, 1947[1] – January 20, 1953[2]
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byMary Pillsbury Lord
1st Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
In office
April 29, 1946[3] – December 30, 1952[4]
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byCharles Malik
First Lady of the United States
In role
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byLou Henry Hoover
Succeeded byBess Truman
First Lady of New York
In role
January 1, 1929 – December 31, 1932
GovernorFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byCatherine Smith
Succeeded byEdith Lehman
Personal details
Born
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

(1884-10-11)October 11, 1884
New York City, U.S.
DiedNovember 7, 1962(1962-11-07) (aged 78)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeSpringwood Estate, Hyde Park, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
(m. 1905; died 1945)
Children6, including Franklin, Anna, Elliott, James II, and John II
Parents
RelativesRoosevelt family
Signature

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (/ˈɛlɪnɔːr ˈrzəvɛlt/ EL-in-or ROH-zə-velt; October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist.[5][6] She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms as president, making her the longest-serving first lady of the United States.[5] Through her travels, public engagement, and advocacy, she largely redefined the role of first lady. Roosevelt then served as a United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952, and took a leading role in designing the text and gaining international support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948, she was given a standing ovation by the assembly upon their adoption of the declaration.[7][8] President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.[9]

Roosevelt was a member of the prominent and wealthy American Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt.[8] She had an unhappy childhood, having suffered the deaths of both parents and one of her brothers at a young age. At 15, she attended Allenswood Boarding Academy in London and was deeply influenced by its founder and director Marie Souvestre. Returning to the U.S., she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905. Between 1906 and 1916 she gave birth to six children, one of whom died in infancy. The Roosevelts' marriage became complicated after Eleanor discovered her husband's affair with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer, in 1918. Due to mediation by her mother-in-law, Sara, who was a strong financial supporter of the family, the liaison was ended officially.[10] After that, both partners started to keep independent agendas, and Eleanor joined the Women's Trade Union League and became active in the New York state Democratic Party.

Roosevelt helped persuade her husband to stay in politics after he was stricken with a paralytic illness in 1921, which cost him the normal use of his legs, and she began giving speeches and appearing at campaign events in his place. Following Franklin's election as governor of New York in 1928, and throughout the remainder of Franklin's public career in government, Roosevelt regularly made public appearances on his behalf; and as first lady, while her husband served as president, she significantly reshaped and redefined the role.

Roosevelt was, in her time, one of the world's most widely admired and powerful women.[10] Nevertheless, in her early years in the White House she was a controversial first lady for her outspokenness, particularly with respect to her promotion of civil rights for African Americans. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column, write a monthly magazine column, host a weekly radio show, and speak at a national party convention. On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband's policies. She launched an experimental community at Arthurdale, West Virginia, for the families of unemployed miners, later widely regarded as a failure. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees. Following her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt remained active in politics for the remaining 17 years of her life. She pressed the United States to join and support the United Nations and became its first delegate to the committee on Human Rights. She served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Later, she chaired the John F. Kennedy administration's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. By the time of her death, Roosevelt was regarded as "one of the most esteemed women in the world"; The New York Times called her "the object of almost universal respect" in her obituary.[11]

In 1999, Roosevelt was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century,[12] and was found to rank as the most admired woman in thirteen different years between 1948 and 1961 in Gallup's annual most admired woman poll.[13] Periodic surveys conducted by the Siena College Research Institute have consistently seen historians assess Roosevelt as the greatest American first lady.

  1. ^ "Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Truman Correspondence: 1947". Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. November 14, 2015. Archived from the original on November 14, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  2. ^ "Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Truman Correspondence: 1953–60". Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. September 24, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  3. ^ Sears, John (2008). "Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (PDF). Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
  4. ^ Fazzi, Dario (December 19, 2016). Eleanor Roosevelt and the Anti-Nuclear Movement: The Voice of Conscience. Springer. p. 109, Note 61. ISBN 978-3-319-32182-0.
  5. ^ a b Moore, Frazier (September 10, 2014). "PBS' 'The Roosevelts' portrays an epic threesome". Associated Press. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  6. ^ Fazzi, Dario (March 7, 2017). "Eleanor Roosevelt's Peculiar Pacifism: Activism, Pragmatism, and Political Efficacy in Interwar America". European Journal of American Studies. 12 (1). doi:10.4000/ejas.11893 – via journals.openedition.org.
  7. ^ Rowley 2010, p. 294.
  8. ^ a b "Eleanor Roosevelt Biography". Biography. August 22, 2019. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  9. ^ "First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill". National Park Service. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  10. ^ a b Caroli, Betty Boyd (November 19, 2023). "Eleanor Roosevelt". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  11. ^ "Mrs. Roosevelt, First Lady 12 Years, Often Called 'World's Most Admired Woman'". The New York Times. November 8, 1962. Archived from the original on March 22, 2013. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  12. ^ "Mother Teresa Voted by American People as Most Admired Person of the Century". The Gallup Organization. December 31, 1999. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  13. ^ "Most Admired Man and Woman". Retrieved August 13, 2021.