Page 330 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

roosevelt, franklin delano 1631

rare form of tuberculosis.After Franklin’s death in 1945,
President Harry S. Truman appointed her a delegate to Roosevelt,
the United Nations, where she served as chairman of the
Commission on Human Rights (1946–1951) and played Franklin Delano
a major role in the drafting and adoption of the Univer- (1882–1945)
sal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. She remained 32nd president of the United States
active in the Democratic Party, working for the election (1933–1945); led the country through
of Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson in the Great Depression and World War II
1952 and 1956.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed her s the only child of James and Sara Delano Roo-
chair of his Commission on the Status of Women, a Asevelt, a noted, wealthy family, Franklin had a priv-
position she held until shortly before her death. She had ileged, sheltered youth. While a student at the exclusive
not initially favored the Equal Rights Amendment, say- Groton School in Massachusetts, Franklin developed a
ing it would actually do more harm than good for sense of social responsibility. He graduated from Harvard
women, but she gradually embraced it. While working University in 1904 and then attended Columbia Law
for the United Nations and for President Kennedy, School, where he was indifferent about grades. He
Eleanor circled the globe several times, meeting with dropped out of law school upon admission to the New
most of the world’s leaders. All the while, she continued York bar in 1907 and worked three years for a Wall Street
to write books and articles. Her work during her White law firm.
House years and after set a standard by which her suc- Personable and outgoing, Franklin married a distant
cessors would be judged. cousin, the shy Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, on 17 March
1905. Her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt (also
James G. Lewis
Franklin’s cousin), gave the bride away.They had six chil-
See also Human Rights dren, one of whom died in infancy.The Roosevelts stayed
active in New York social circles but at the same time
devoted considerable energy to the plight of the less for-
Further Reading tunate. Although a Democrat, Franklin admired the pro-
Black, A. (1996). Casting her own shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the gressivism of his cousin Theodore and decided early
shaping of postwar liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Black, A. (1999). Courage in a dangerous world:The political writings of upon a political career. He started by winning a seat as
Eleanor Roosevelt. New York: Columbia University Press. a Democrat in the New York state senate in 1910.
Burns, J. M. (2001). The three Roosevelts: Patrician leaders who trans-
formed America. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. Roosevelt quickly built a reputation as a reformer by
Freedman, R. (1997). Eleanor Roosevelt: A life of discovery. New York: taking on the state’s Democratic political machine. For
Houghton Mifflin. his support of Woodrow Wilson at the hotly contested
Goodwin, D. K. (1994). No ordinary time: Franklin and Eleanor: The
home front in World War II. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1912 Democratic National Convention, Wilson
appointed him assistant secretary of the navy. Roosevelt
served from 1913 to 1920 and gained considerable
administrative experience. The Roosevelt name and his
progressive image won him the party’s vice-presidential
nomination in 1920 on the ticket with the conservative
Ohio governor, James M. Cox. Roosevelt mounted a vig-
orous campaign defending Wilson’s advocacy of U.S.
membership in the League of Nations. The Democrats