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Eleanor Roosevelt

Illustrations by: Amarjeet Malik

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was a powerful voice on behalf of a wide range of social causes including youth employment and civil rights for blacks and women. The wife of a popular U.S. president, Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 11, 1884 was a tireless worker for social causes. A niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, she was raised by her maternal grandmother after the premature death of her parents. In 1905, she married her cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt; they had six children, one of whom died in infancy. Although extremely shy, she became active in politics after her husband was stricken with polio in 1921.

When Franklin became president in 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt transformed herself into a tireless worker for social causes. She conducted press conferences, had her own radio program, and wrote a daily newspaper column, "My Day," which was nationally syndicated. After her husband's death, she continued in public life. She served (1945-52, 1961-62) as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations and helped draft the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Her books include The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1961) and This I Remember (1949). She died on November 7, 1962.