Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She served as the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest serving First Lady of the United States. She also served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.

It has often been said that behind every great man you will find a great woman, and rarely can this have been more true than with Eleanor Roosevelt. Although she was married to Franklin D Roosevelt for Forty years from 1905 until his death towards the end of the Second World War in 1945, she was also President Theodore Roosevelt’s Niece.

Roosevelt is seen by historians as having been significantly more advanced than her husband on civil rights During Franklin's administration, Roosevelt became an important connection to the African-American population in the era of segregation. Despite the President's desire to placate Southern sentiment, Roosevelt was vocal in her support of the civil rights movement. After her inspections of New Deal programs in Southern states, she concluded that New Deal programs were discriminating against African-Americans, who received a disproportionately small share of relief money. Roosevelt became one of the only voices in her husband's administration insisting that benefits be equally extended to Americans of all races. Roosevelt also broke with tradition by inviting hundreds of African-American guests to the White House. In 1936 she became aware of conditions at the National Training School for Girls, a predominantly Black reform school once located in the Palisades neighbourhood of Washington, D.C. She visited the school, wrote about it in her "My Day" column, lobbied for additional funding, and pressed for changes in staffing and curriculum. Her White House invitation to the students became an issue in Franklin's 1936 re-election campaign. When the Black singer Marian Anderson was denied the use of Washington's Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939, Roosevelt resigned from the group in protest and helped arrange another concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Roosevelt also arranged the appointment of African-American educator Mary McLeod Bethune, with whom she had struck up a friendship, as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. To avoid problems with the staff when Bethune would visit the White House, Roosevelt would meet her at the gate, embrace her, and walk in with her arm-in-arm.

Roosevelt's support of African-American rights made her an unpopular figure among whites in the South. Rumours spread of "Eleanor Clubs" formed by servants to oppose their employers and "Eleanor Tuesdays" on which African-American men would knock down white women on the street, though no evidence has ever been found of either practice. When race riots broke out in Detroit in June 1943, critics in both the North and South wrote that Roosevelt was to blame. At the same time, she grew so popular among African-Americans, previously a reliable Republican voting bloc, that they became a consistent base of support for the Democratic Party.

Roosevelt was an unprecedentedly outspoken First Lady who made far more use of the media than her predecessors; she held 348 press conferences over the span of her husband's 12-year presidency. Inspired by her close relationship with Associated Press reporter Lorena Hickok, Roosevelt placed a ban on male reporters attending the press conferences, effectively forcing newspapers to keep female reporters on staff in order to cover them. It has been speculated though never proved that Roosevelt’s relationship with Hickok was a physical, sexual one and it was widely known throughout the Washington Press Corps that Hickock was a gay woman and she even resigned her position within Associated Press in order to stay close to Roosevelt. This speculated relationship does indeed seem very likely, but Roosevelt never confirmed or denied it. It is also stated that this relationship, coupled with her outspoken stance on Civil Rights, led FBI Director J Edgar Hoover to despise her and keep her under almost constant surveillance.

Franklin D Roosevelt if often cited by many as amongst America’s Greatest Presidents and his wife also deserves her place as one of the greatest women in American History.