FDR Delivers Famous Four Freedoms Speech
In a section of his State of the Union Address on this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered what has become famous as his Four Freedoms speech.
Roosevelt defined Tte Four Freedoms as Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. The freedoms from want and fear, of course, are not part of the Bill of Rights. But Roosevelt’s reference to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Worship were the most important statements by a sitting president on these two parts of the Bill of Rights.
The Norman Rockwell illustrations of the Four Freedoms were originally published in the Saturday Evening Post, beginning on February 20, 1943. The illustrations were later widely circulated as posters, and have become American cultural icons.
Beginning around 2012, a number of African-American artists began reimagining the Four Freedoms posters from the perspective of racism and the African-American experience in America. The result has been a number of posters based on Rockwell’s originals, but from a very different point of view. Read the New York Times article on the “reimagining” movement here. See especially the posters by Maurice “Pops” Peterson here.
FDR: “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want — which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear — which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world.”
Read FDR’s Speech:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=16092Watch the speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnrZUHcpoNA
Visit Four Freedoms Park in New York City:
http://www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org/Learn more: Stuart Murray, Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms (1993)
Also Visit the Four Freedoms Monument in the Tremont Neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio (and encourage Cleveland officials to publicize the monument)