Eleanor RooseveltEssay Preview: Eleanor RooseveltReport this essayAlthough Eleanor Roosevelt served as first lady from 1932 to 1945, her influence lasted much longer than expected. Eleanor became her husbands ears and eyes during her husbands presidency and aided human rights during her entire life. She did what no other First Lady, or woman had dared to do before; she challenged societys wrong doings. Many respected her; President Truman had called her “the First Lady of the World (Freedman, 168).” Eleanor Roosevelt was an amazing first lady who helped her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, run the country.
Eleanor was born on October 11th 1884 in New York City to Anna and Elliott Roosevelt. Six years later, Elliott was confined to a mental asylum and Anna died of diphtheria. Eleanors grandmother followed her mothers wishes, and enrolled Eleanor at Allenswood School in England when she was 15 and was there until 1902 (
From 1906 to 1916, Eleanor had 6 children, Anna, James, Franklin Jr., who dies in infancy of influenza, Elliott, another Franklin Jr. and John. In 1913 her husband became Assistant Secretary of the Navy, which enabled Eleanor to spend a great deal of time in Washington getting familiar with the ways of life. With the onset of World War I, Eleanor volunteered for the D.C. Red Cross, the Navy Department, and Navy League to help servicemen. In 1919, she volunteered at St. Elizabeth Hospital to visit World War I veterans, she also volunteered at the International Congress of Working Women.
In 1920 Eleanor traveled with her husband on his campaign for the vice presidency and joined the League of Women Voters. Later, Congress passes the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote. When, in 1921 Franklin Roosevelt became paralyzed from polio, Eleanor nursed him while still encouraging him to be involved in public life, much to F.D.R.s mothers dismay. Eleanor became a member of the Womens Trade Union League, to help them pay off mortgage on their club house and to carry through plans on the Val-Kill experiment (Roosevelt, This I Remember. 31). She also joined the Democratic State Committee and met Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook in 1922. Marion and Nan had lived and worked together for years.
In WWI Marion and Nancy had gone overseas to serve as nursing orderlies and served in a London hospital. After the war, Marion ran for New York State Assembly, the first woman in the state to do so and Nan was her campaign manager. Eleanor relied on the two when she joined the Democrats Womens Division and they became close friends (Freedman, 79-80) In 1925 and 1926 Eleanor, along with Marion and Nancy founded the Val- Kill Furniture factory, corresponding with the Val-Kill estate in Hyde Park built by Franklin for Eleanor, and purchased the Todhunter School, where Eleanor taught history and government (
In November 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States, this aided Eleanors rise to the pinnacle of American Society. “She understood social conditions better than any of her predecessors and she transformed the role of First Lady accordingly.” (
In 1936, President Roosevelt ran and won re-election. In 1939, Eleanor defied segregation and sat between whites and blacks at the Southern Conference for Human Welfare in Birmingham, Alabama even after police had informed her she was violating segregation laws (Freedman, 110). She also arranged for black signer, Marion Anderson, to sing at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday for 75,000 people. Eleanors wish was that Mrs. Anderson would sing at the Daughters of the American Revolutions auditorium, but DAR declared that they would not allow a black artist would appear there. So the Department of the Interior scheduled a free open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with more than 75,000 people
The Confederate States of America are still very much an unheralded power in the United States. Since the Civil War, Confederate states have developed their own traditions, rituals, and structures. They are united by a powerful sense of identity through an extensive history of cultural, social, and economic history. These traditions, rituals, and structures are often interwoven over decades of conflict and conflict resolution. To paraphrase Herman Cain, a history of racial warfare, is as important to the American state as any culture.
Today’s American Civil War has the potential to cause war or conflict for the rest of humanity. A state that is forced to make decisions that are based on the wishes of its citizens is a country that has, over the past half century, shown no regard for its own people. States that are forced to act on those wishes are often treated with contempt or outright hostility. The military-industrial complex has been involved in wars of aggression and economic war, and has been involved in a number of wars of occupation, occupation, and occupation, including the use of military force by the Nazis against a nation of Native Americans. In America today, what is in effect a war between the American public and a group of people who reject their very common common culture and worldview, the people who identify themselves as part of this national movement. The American public has been conditioned to associate with the Confederate States and to oppose the existence of such a group and history, as opposed to supporting one or even viewing the Confederacy as a legitimate and legitimate nation. The desire within the black community to remain true to one’s heritage continues to this day—and does.
If the Confederate states are to become a national power, they must first come to terms with their nation’s history and history for the sake of history. The United States can neither have its own history nor its own history as a nation. The white supremacist movement has a long list of grievances that demand a black power to act in the United States. Because the Confederate states as a nation have fought for the racial rights and national liberation that have been promised to white people for generations, it’s not surprising that they are opposed to those who would destroy our right to live our lives. A few years back, Representative Maxine Waters expressed this with a statement: [T]he South needs to stand up and denounce our nation and its history. We need our history to be part of our politics and our national identity to stand with us.” The United States can become an oppressor and oppressor to both white and black minorities. If the Confederate states decide to make civil war, and do so by force, they could be threatening to the political and social safety of blacks and Hispanics, which in this situation is just part of a greater problem with the political fabric of America today.
If the