Essay/Term paper: Eleanor roosevelt

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biography Term Papers

Eleanor Roosevelt was a honest person

who had responsibility and compassion towards her

husband , family and her fellow man, whatever their social

status. She used great citizenship and initiative actions in

dealing with anyone who was fortunate enough to make her

acquaintance. Eleanor Roosevelt is an outspoken advocate

of social justice. During the years she has taken over a lot

of responsibility. For someone who spent thefirst third of

her life as shy and timid, she showed great courage once

she was thrust into the presidential "spotlight". Most

Americans considered her a true "American Hero".

"Ladies and gentlemen, members of the press, I now

announce the presence of our first lady of the United

States, Eleanor Roosevelt", is something similar to what

you would hear when being addressed at a press

conference or important meetings. She was a well

respected human being, achieving great duties and

responsibility in life. She was appointed by President John

F. Kennedy to be on the first peace corps advisory board.

She was such an active lady while her husband was in

office that she was no longer willing to stay quietly in the

background of her husband. She took a job as an editor

and advertising manager of a monthly publication " The

Women"s Democratic News" where she became more

independent towards herself and work. Eleanor Roosevelt

became very involved in women issues, being that she also

joined the newly organized Women"s division of the New

York State Democratic party and moved swiftly into

positions of leadership. Not only was she responsible

among organizations and people, she later became her

husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt"s eyes and ears, dedicating

her life to his purposes, being a trusted and tireless

reporter. One of the reasons she did become so helpful

towards her husbands career was besides the fact that she

was the first lady, Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with

a disease called polio and caused him to be permanently

crippled in August of 1921. She then became even more

loyal to him and our country having to deal with people

from different nations, organizations and positions. While

the President struggled to regain the use of his legs, Eleanor

Roosevelt and Louis Howe joined forces to keep his

political and business contacts alive. She became a

powerful voice for youth employment and civil rights

forblacks and women. No first lady has been more visible

and outspoken than Eleanor Roosevelt. Perseverance, was

another great quality of Eleanor Roosevelt. From the time

she was a little girl she had to persevere. Both her parents

were considered to be handsome and gay socialite among

New York society. She was a very plain, shy insecure

child, who knew that she was neither pretty nor graceful

and that she was a disappointment to her beautiful mother.

Although she was the apple of her father"s eye, he

disapproved of her being afraid and timid. Her father was

an alcoholic and was away from the family a lot as he tried

to straighten out his life. Her mother died when she was

only eight years old of diphtheria, and her father died when

she was ten. She was raised by her maternal grandmother

who was very strict and most of her education was by

tutors.( In accordance to her mothers wishes, her

grandmother sent her to a private school in England when

she was fifteen. It was here that Eleanor started to blossom

and become a person in her own right. Upon her return to

New York, she had her debut into New York Society in

1902. In 1903 she became reacquainted with her distant

cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt whom she knew from

childhood. Eleanor and Franklin fell in love and were

married in 1905, despite his mother"s opposition. Sara

Delano Roosevelt was a domineering person who ran

Eleanor"s household as if it were her own. She always

made Eleanor feel in adequate. It wasn"t until Franklin was

elected to the New York State Senate and they moved

away to Washington, that Eleanor was free of Sara"s

interference and meddling. When Eleanor was in her

thirties, she finally began to emerge as her own person due

to events in her life. Moving away from her mother-in-law,

being exposed to the political scene in Washington, finding

out about her husband"s affair with her social secretary,

and Franklin contracting polio all forced her to come out

into the public life.( Although she was shy, she learned to

make public appearances and participate in New York

politics because she knew Franklin"s career depended on

it. She also went back to teaching, wrote articles, lectured

and opened a furniture factory in upstate New York. She

became further politically active and participated in several

women"s organizations that were involved in social

legislation. The plan had been for her involvement to

reawaken her husbands interest in the outside after he was

crippled by polio. Once this was accomplished though,

Eleanor had no intentions to just go back into the shadows.

While first lady of New York State, she was the legs and

eyes for Franklin as she made inspections of state

institutions. When she became first lady of the nation, she

advised her husband, helped to foster legislation and spoke

her mind on social issues. She fought for the improvement

of housing, education, health and the status of minority

groups.( Even while doing all this, she did not surrender any

of her other activities. She earned her own income and

gave most of her money to various charities. She traveled

throughout the country, visiting coal mines and

impoverished Appalachian farms. ( During World War II

she continued to do inspections for her husband and made

goodwill tours to England, the South Pacific and the

Caribbean. She also visited American troops abroad to

boost their morale. She also visited military camps inside

the United States and reported her findings to the

President. She was a critic of racial discrimination and even

resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution

because of their racial policies. She pushed for better job

opportunities for blacks. She was criticized harshly for her

views, although she tempered herself for the sake of her

husband"s re-election. She was not afraid to passionately

discuss her views on any policy or legislation with her

husband. And although both denied that she had any real

influence with the president, her views were always an

important factor in the outcome of many of those

decisions.( Along with her many accomplishments Eleanor

Roosevelt had a lotcompassion to her work. In 1946, she

was elected chair of the United Nations eighteen-member

Human Rights Commission, which had been instructed to

draft an international bill of rights. During the next two years

Mrs. Roosevelt proved herself a skillful diplomat as she

mediated among the clashing views of delegates from

different nations and cultures. As you can read she was a

very active lady who carried prominent compassion

towards her work. During her years as a United Nations

delegate, Eleanor Roosevelt continued to lecture,

broadcast, and write. She delivered more than one hundred

lectures a year , she broadcasted a daily radio

commentary, and hosted a weekly television interview

show, one of the first of it"s kind. She was very loyal to

herself and to the nation throughout the years. She served

as a UN delegate throughout Truman"s two terms as

president. She had one of the most wonderful and

worthwhile experiences in her life when she served as one

of five American delegates to the first meeting of the United

Nations General Assembly, she first refused and later said

yes.( You would never thing that such a person would have

so many characteristics that showed so much about her and

what she did. She continued a vigorous carrer until her

strength began to wane in 1962. She died in New York

City in November, and was buried at Hyde Park beside

her husband. She was so memorable that if you ever travel

to the New York area, go to Hyde Park. People

remodeled their house, the house of Eleanor and Franklin

D. Roosevelt and made it an Historical place to see.

Whenever you perceive the name Eleanor Roosevelt, you

can remember how she showed great compassion to her

work and life. How loyal she was to the people of our

nation. What great responsibility"s she consummated and

what respect she gave and received from and to so many.

Works Cited Diller, Daniel C. & Robertson, Stephen .L "

The Presidents, First Ladies and Vice Presidents. Library

of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 1959. Collier

Encyclopedia: Copyright 1989 Cook, Blanche Wiesen :

Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One New York: Vikking 1992

Eleanor Roosevelt: This is My Story New York: Harper &

Bros., 1937 On My Own New York: Harper & Bros.,

1949 Http://personalweb.smcvt.edu/smahady/ercover.html

Lash, Joseph P. : Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their

Relationship Based on Eleanor Roosevelt"s Private Papers.

New York: W.W. Norton, 1971 Lash, Joseph P. : Eleanor

Roosevelt: A friend"s Memoir. Garden City, N.Y Lorena

Hickok : Eleanor Roosevelt: Reluctan First Lady New

York: Dodd, Mead 1962

WWW.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/firstladies/html/ar32.html

WWW.geocites.com/collegepark/library/4142/childhood.html

Young"s , J. Williams T. : Eleanor Roosevelt: A Personal a

Public Life Boston: Little, Brown, 1985