Eleanor's Legacy

About Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the role of first lady, challenged the Democratic Party to practice what it preached, and jump-started the international conversation on human rights.

As teacher, party activist, first lady, journalist, social reformer and diplomat – ER lent her considerable energy to issues of grave concern to women: education, health care, equal employment, and child care. She also insisted that "women learn to the play the game" as well as "men do," that it was "up to the women" to craft policies that address their concerns, and that women have seats at every table the Democratic Party assembled.

Read an article about about Eleanor Roosevelt by Dr. Allida Black.

About Eleanor Roosevelt
Dr. Allida Black's Book Receives Rave Reviews!

Dr. Allida Black's Book Receives Rave Reviews!

We are thrilled to announce that fellow ERLC Board Member Dr. Allida Black received her first major review for her recently published book, The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers: Volume I, The Human Rights Years, 1945-1948.

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Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

Eleanor Roosevelt was well known for her memorable quotes. She once said, "Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!"

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Articles by Eleanor Roosevelt

Oct 16, 1943

A Challenge to American Sportsmanship

"A Japanese is always a Japanese" is an easily accepted phrase and it has taken hold quite naturally on the West Coast because of some reasonable or unreasonable fear back of it, but it leads nowhere and solves nothing. Japanese-Americans may be no more Japanese than a German-American is German, or an Italian-American is Italian. All of these people, including the Japanese-Americans, have men who are fighting today for the preservation of the democratic way of life and the ideas around which our nation was built..."

Oct 16, 1943

In Defense of Curiosity

"It is man's ceaseless urge to know more and to do more which makes the world move, and so, when people say woman's place is in the home, I say, with enthusiasm, it certainly is, but if she really cares about her home, that caring will take her far and wide..."

Oct 16, 1943

Are We Overlooking the Pursuit of Happiness

"The attainment of life and liberty required most of our energy in the past, so the pursuit of happiness and the consideration of the lives of human beings remained in the background. Now is the time to recognize the possibilities which lie before us in the taking up and developing of this part of our forefathers' vision..."

Oct 16, 1943

How to Take Criticism

"What about criticism? I am always being asked if it troubles me, or makes me angry, or hurts me. Should we be affected by criticism regardless of its source?..."

More Articles by Eleanor Roosevelt

Columns by Eleanor Roosevelt

Jan 1, 2009

A Point in President's Subversive Order Should be Clarified

"All citizens should be able to inquire of the Government as to any organization which they are asked to join, and they should get a prompt answer. Otherwise, many unsuspecting people may find themselves belonging to disloyal organizations or contributing money to them, and even if they are not seeking work with the Government, their membership might prove to be an embarrassment..."

Jan 1, 2009

I Was Denied a Visa to Visit Red China

"One of my newspapers (the New York Post) has asked me if I would be willing to go to Communist China and try to interview some of the people in the government there. I had long wanted to go to China, just as my husband always wanted to go there..."

More Columns by Eleanor Roosevelt

Letters to and from Eleanor Roosevelt

Oct 4, 1948

Letter to Frances Perkins

"Though there are many people in the government that I would hate to feel would not be allowed to continue their work, I still find it very difficult to give any good reasons for being for Mr. Truman..."

Oct 4, 1948

Letter to Truman

"This year I hope every Democrat and independent voter is concentrating on the election of as many liberal Democrats to Congress as possible. I hope for this particularly from the labor and farm groups who have perhaps the greatest stake in the preservation of liberal leadership..."

Mar 22, 1948

Letter to Truman

"I feel that even though the Secretary of State takes the responsibility for the Administration’s attitude on Palestine, you can not escape the results of that attitude..."

Mar 13, 1948

Letter to George Marshall

"You will forgive me, I hope, if I write to you at this time, but I am becoming more and more worried. The situation abroad seems to me to be deteriorating rapidly as regards Russia and ourselves..."

More Letters to and from Eleanor Roosevelt

Speeches by Eleanor Roosevelt

Feb 23, 2009

Speech on V-J Day

"The day for which the people of the world have prayed is here at last. There is great thankfulness in our hearts. Peace has not come, however, as the result of the kind of power which we have known in the past, but as the result of a new discovery which as yet is not fully understood, nor even developed..."

Sep 28, 1948

The Struggle for Human Rights

"I have come this evening to talk with you on one of the greatest issues of our time—that is the preservation of human freedom..."

Oct 16, 1943

The Negro and Social Change

"We have a great responsibility here in the United States because we offer the best example that exists perhaps today throughout the world, of the fact that if different races know each other they may live peacefully together..."

Dec 7, 1941

Pan American Coffee Bureau

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I am speaking to you tonight at a very serious moment in our history. The Cabinet is convening and the leaders in Congress are meeting with the President. The State Department and Army and Navy officials have been with the President all afternoon. In fact, the Japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the very time that Japan's airships were bombing our citizens in Hawaii and the Philippines and sinking one of our transports loaded with lumber on its way to Hawaii..."

More Speeches by Eleanor Roosevelt


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