Eleanor Roosevelt: The World's First Lady

             The havoc and devastation wrought in World War II caused serious damage to the affairs of the world. The late President Franklin D. Roosevelt fashioned a new conglomerate of nations, in an attempt to straighten out nations' interactions. This group was called the United Nations (UN). President Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, knew that in the repercussions of World War II, strong role models for peace and justice were needed to rebuild the catastrophic state of eastern European countries, along with many Asian and South Pacific countries. Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential and renowned activists for peace and equality through her acts of care as a United States delegate to the United Nations, in her membership to the American Association for the United Nations (AAUN), and as a humanitarian role model as she approached her care of foreign nations.
             Eleanor planned to expand Franklin's idea of the UN because she knew that only a strong UN would keep world peace. "As far as she was concerned the United Nations...was the greatest achievement of Franklin's Presidency-and she wanted to help strengthen it" (Morey 78). The UN required all countries belonging to appoint delegates. Following Roosevelt's death, the new President, Harry S. Truman, decided to pick Eleanor because he knew her past history of working to create a liberal Southern movement, and also of her many trips to US State Prisons (Cook 507). Eleanor believed that all citizens of the United States should be accepted as equals, regardless of race. President Truman wanted Eleanor to keep these very beliefs, yet apply them to the world as a whole. In 1946, Truman listed her as a delegate for the General Assembly of the UN in London. However, since Eleanor was a woman, her fellow delegates had qualms about placing her within 'important' committees of the UN, such as a section involving politics or the economy. Therefore, they p...

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Eleanor Roosevelt: The World's First Lady. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:22, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/29066.html