First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt Endorses Civil Liberties
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on this day delivered a speech on civil liberties to a meeting of the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee. Eleanor was stronger on most civil liberties and human rights issues than her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On a number of occasions she was publicly outspoken in support of racial justice, while he never made a definitive public speech on the subject. Eleanor raised questions about the Japanese-American evacuation in early 1942, but then fell silent when he made it clear he did not want to hear any more about it.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s major contribution was her role in helping the draft the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948).
Roosevelt: “I am more conscious of the importance of civil liberties in the particular moment of our history than anyone else, because as I travel through the country and meet people and see things that have happened to little people, I realize what it means to democracy to preserve our civil liberties.”
Read the full speech at the FDR Library: http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/documents/articles/civilliberties.cfm
Learn more about Eleanor Roosevelt: Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt (1992)
Read other writings and speeches by Eleanor Roosevelt: Alida M. Black, Courage in a Dangerous World: The Political Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt (1999)
Learn more about Roosevelt’s role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration: Mary Ann Glendon, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2001)
Learn more about Eleanor Roosevelt as First Lady: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/eleanorroosevelt