by Kendra Blake
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT-Early Voice of the Civil Rights Movement
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11th, 1884 in New York City. In 1902 she met her father's fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1903 they began a courtship. In November of that same year they became engaged, however, Franklin's mother Sara was against the impending marriage. She soon adjusted to the inevitable.
Early in her life Eleanor saw the poverty around her and decided that someone had to do something so she became active in public service. She especially saw the plight of African-American citizens and resolved to make things better. She knew that the American people would have to work together so the country would have a more honorable standing on the world stage.
In 1903 The Women's Trade Union was formed to fight sweatshop conditions in the factories and organizing labor unions. Ms. Roosevelt was in the forefront of all this political change that the country needed.
Ms. Eleanor became active in the civil rights of African-American citizens. The military branches were still segregated. She made tremendous efforts to make the country understand that it took all of the American citizenry to meet the approaching threat of Nazi Germany. When the United States finally entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor she knew that it was time to break down some barriers.
Ms. Roosevelt was particularly supportive of the Tuskegee Institute for Negro Flyers. In 1941 as our country entered the war it was her wish to fly with one of Tuskegee's pilots. She flew with student pilot Charles Anderson. This brought great recognition to the advanced flying school which produced the first African-American pilots who played a large part in the war as did the ground soldiers. The war could not have been won without the intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt and the support of the president.
In 1941 she was active on the home front by co-chairing the National Committee on Civil Defense with Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York. She used to opportunity to lift the morale of civilians and military personnel. In 1943 she made the journey to the South Pacific where she first met Admiral Brett Halsey. He had first opposed the visit but after the meeting he praised her efforts.
In the years after the war she was sought out by the Democratic Party to run for office. Some even jokingly suggested that she run for first woman president. She was that good at her job. She won many awards but she is also the first First-Lady an honorary membership in the Alpha Kappa AlphaSorority Inc. for African-American Women. She shares this with another First-Lady, Michelle Obama.
In April, 1960 she was involved in a car accident in New York City. She was finally diagnosed with aplastic anemia and developed bone cancertuberculosis. On November 7, 1962 Ms. Roosevelt died in her Manhattan apartment at the age of 78.
Many advances in the national culture would not have taken place had it not been for her influence and powers of persuasion on the American public as well as many politicians. For all her successes there is a statue of Ms. Roosevelt at the F.D.R. Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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