Eleanor Roosevelt - Life Experiences
This is a story of a woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, who gave her life, so that we might live in a world more just, more tolerant and more understanding. It is one of steely determination to oppose the politics of fear, to fight for civil liberties and civil rights, to bridge opposites by forging partnerships. At one time the Ku Klux Klan placed a $25,000 bounty on her to try and stop her work for civil rights.
Eleanor Roosevelt served as chair of the Human Rights Committee in 1948 and it was her leadership that was the major factor ensuring the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Historians agree that without her, the declaration would probably never have passed. Eleanor Roosevelt's leadership brought the 18 other members of the Commission together to cooperate effectively despite political differences, cultural barriers and personal rivalries.
The Guinness Book of Records describes the UDHR as the "Most Translated Document" in the world.
"For people of good will around the world, that document is more than just words: It's a global testament of humanity, a standard by which any humble person on Earth can stand in judgment of any government on Earth." Said President Ronald Regan. Pope John Paul II called the UDHR "one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time" President Truman called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.
She was a suffragist who worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) - Humanitarian
Although a shy child, Eleanor Roosevelt became one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century. During the Roosevelt Administration, she used her position to promote reforms to help women, minorities, and poor people. As the "eyes and ears" for her husband, she provided essential information about Americans' concerns. Important as her work on refugee issues was, ER's efforts on behalf of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) have had the greatest long-term impact. As chair of the subcommittee that drafted the UDHR she played a critical role in the creation of the declaration skillfully creating an atmosphere that permitted blending the ideas and norms of different cultures together in a document nations around the globe could assent to while marshaling U.S. support for swift passage of the declaration by separating it from a legally binding (and more problematic) covenant . Later as chairman of the Human Rights Commission, she presented the document to the General Assembly and was instrumental in its passage. Today, more than 50 years after its passage, the UDHR remains the touchstone of the global Human Rights movement and a key component of an international system that provides for international scrutiny of the way in which a nation treats its citizens.
ER addressed the problems of unemployed youth with the same fervor she applied to women's economic hardships. This also was not a politically popular position for her to take. ER thought that camps in the Civilian Conservation Corps, while providing temporary relief for some youth, did not meet this need. Furthermore, because the camps were supervised by military personnel and only provided instruction in forestry, ER believed that an additional program tailored to the special needs of youth was urgently needed. In mid-1933, she pressured Harry Hopkins to develop a program for youth which would provide a social, rather than a militaristic, focus. ER argued that the specific problems facing youth needed to be recognized, but only in a way which fostered a sense of self-worth. By providing job skills and education, she hoped that the program would foster a sense of civic awareness which in turn would promote a commitment to social justice. Then youth would be empowered to articulate their own needs and aspirations and to express these insights clearly. Although historians disagree over how major a role ER played in establishing the National Youth Administration (NYA), her imprint upon the agency's development is indelible. Established by an executive order signed by FDR on June 26, 1935, the NYA was authorized to administer programs in five areas: work projects, vocational guidance, apprenticeship training, educational and nutritional guidance camps for unemployed women, and student financial aid. While most historians view ER's commitment to Arthurdale as the best example of her influence within the New Deal, ER did more than champion a single anti-poverty program. Continuously she urged that relief should be as diverse as the constituency which needed it. She introduced programs for groups not originally included in New Deal plans; supported others which were in danger of elimination or having their funds cut; pushed the hiring of women, blacks, and liberals within federal agencies; and acted as the administration's most outspoken champion of liberal reform. When the needs of unemployed women where overlooked by FERA and CWA planners, ER lobbied first to have a women's divisions established within both agencies and then to have Hilda Worthington Smith and Ellen Sullivan Woodward appointed program directors. She then planned and chaired the White House Conference on the Emergency Needs of Women and monitored the Household Workers' Training Program which was born during the conference. ER took such satisfaction in the NYA that when she briefly acknowledged her role in forming the agency, she did so with an uncharacteristic candor. "One of the ideas I agreed to present to Franklin," she wrote in This I Remember, "was that of setting up a national youth administration. . . . It was one of the occasions on which I was very proud that the right thing was done regardless of political consequences." While the advent of World War II reinforced ER's commitment to the New Deal and social reform, it also allowed her to expand the scope of her activities at home and abroad. Even before the war began, concern for the plight of European refugees fueled her work with such groups as the Emergency Rescue Committee and the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children. ER lobbied Congress particularly on behalf of the Child Refugee Bill which would have allowed an additional 10,000 children a year above the German quota to enter the United States over a two-year period.
Moreover, while she abandoned her sponsored radio program and gave up teaching, she refused to give up editing Babies—Just Babies, a magazine she had started to help mothers avoid the kind of mistakes her parents had made and she had perpetuated with her own children. The magazine was filled with droll and informative stories, infant photographs, uplifting and curious advice, prizes, poetry, and whimsy. ER believed it offered young mothers a much-needed service. The First Lady-elect wanted every young mother to have a less tormented and ignorant time than she had endured.
In December 1945, Harry Truman appointed her to the United States delegation to the United Nation.
A President's Commission on the Status of Women be created to examine policies and positions related to women's employment and civil, economic, and political rights, JFK appointed ER chair and Peterson its vice-chair. After chairing the commission's first meeting February 12, 1962, she told readers of "My Day" that "the effort, of course, is to find how we can best use the potentialities of women without impairing their first responsibilities, which are to their homes, their husbands and their children." Allida M. Black, Ph.D
Note from ER's grandchild.
"To me, my grandmother was the most important person in my life. And I for a long time had no idea that she was famous. So as I reflect back and realize that at the time she was giving me a lot of personal time. I was welcome in her apartment at any time I wanted to go. And I knew that, and I took advantage of it for sure. I was at her house frequently. And she took me on trips, and we had a lot of fun together, as well as I learned a tremendous amount on those trips from her. And she took time to teach me. It wasn't that I was learning by osmosis. She took the time to teach me a lot of things."
Roosevelt received 35 honorary degrees during her life, compared to 31 awarded to her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt. At her memorial service, Adlai Stevenson asked, "What other single human being has touched and transformed the existence of so many?" Stevenson also said that Roosevelt was someone "who would rather light a candle than curse the darkness."
Eleanor Roosevelt, who considered herself plain and craved affection as a child, had in the end transcended whatever shortcomings she felt were hers to bring comfort and hope to many, becoming one of the most admired figures of the 20th century.
We recognize Eleanor Roosevelt and her colleagues for their contribution in ensuring the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the "Magna Carta" of our times.
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.
Yet they are the world of the individual person;
the neighborhood he lives in;
the school or college he attends;
the factory, farm, or office where he works.
Such are the places where every man woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.
Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.
Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."