Fundamental Freedoms Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

278 Pages·2010·4.93 MB·English

T M h s
he aking isTory eries
Fundamental

FReedOmS
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
With a Foreword by Allida M. Black & Mary Jo Blinker, the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
A Facing History and Ourselves Publication
Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational and professional
development organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse
backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to
promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the
historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students
make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront
in their own lives. For more information about Facing History and Ourselves, please
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Copyright © 2010 by Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Facing History and Ourselves® is a trademark registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office.
Cover art photos: Eleanor with the UDHR Poster, UN Photo. The following photos
are © Bettmann/Corbis: Roosevelt, Cook and Dickerman; Visiting Infantile Paralysis
Victims; Eleanor at the UN General Assembly; Eleanor with Marian Anderson;
Eleanor in the Coal Mine; and Eleanor and Franklin.
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ISBN-13: 978-0-9819543-2-5
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ABOUT FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES
Facing History and Ourselves is a nonprofit educational organization whose mis-
sion is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an exam ination of racism,
prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote a more humane and informed
citizenry. As the name Facing History and Ourselves implies, the organization
helps teachers and their students make the essential connections between his-
tory and the moral choices they confront in their own lives, and offers a frame-
work and a vocabu lary for analyzing the meaning and responsibility of citizen-
ship, and the tools to recognize bigotry and indifference in their own worlds.
Through a rigorous examination of the failure of democracy in Germany during
the 1920s and 1930s, and the steps leading to the Holocaust, along with other
examples of hatred, collective violence, and genocide in the past century, Facing
History and Ourselves provides educators with tools for teaching history and eth-
ics, and for helping their students learn to combat prejudice with compassion,
indifference with participation, myth and misinformation with knowledge.
Believing that no classroom exists in isolation, Facing History and Ourselves
offers programs and materials to a broad audience of students, parents, teach-
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Primary Writer: Dan Eshet
From its inception, Fundamental Freedoms: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Uni-
versal Declaration of Human Rights has been a collaborative effort. Facing
History and Ourselves extends gratitude to all who contributed to the devel-
opment of this publication.
We would like to thank Jill Garling and Thomas Wilson for their generous
support of the Making History Series. It is a great pleasure to thank Allida M.
Black, project director at the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project and professor
of history and international affairs at George Washington University, as well as
her staff. Allida’s affectionate writings about Eleanor shaped our views of “ER”
as an independent political activist and as one of the most progressive and
influential thinkers of her generation. Sam Gilbert, our long-time editor, spent
many hours improving the style of this text. We thank him for his passionate
work on this project. We would also like to thank Daniel Cohen, a dear friend
and professor of history at Rice University, who read the text several times
and whose advice and thoughtful discussions, shaped not only the text of
this book, but also the way we thought about and approached the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Carol Hillman, chair of the Honoring Eleanor
Roosevelt Project at Val-Kill, also made valuable contributions to the discus-
sions of Eleanor’s role in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Special thanks to Mary Ann Glendon, who advised at critical stages
during development, especially around issues of cultural differences as they
played out in the UDHR drafting process. We thank the staff of the Franklin
D. Roosevelt Presidential Library for their patience, advice, and cooperation
throughout the research process. We also want to thank Sharon Lindenburger
who reviewed the manuscript in its later drafts and enhanced its style. We
also want to thank the design and editorial teams at Brown Publishing Net-
work for their solid judgment and devotion in producing this resource.
While writing this book, Facing History and Ourselves has been fortunate to
benefit from the perspective, insight, and passion of many of its staff members.
We owe credit for the inspiration to read about Eleanor Roosevelt to Margot
Stern Strom. This book bears the marks of her passionate interest in Eleanor’s
life, actions, and ideas. We owe many kinds of thanks to Adam Strom for his
broad perspective and deep understanding of human rights, and for his care-
ful reading of every word written. His knowledge of civil rights history kept our
research honest and our writing balanced and fair. We also deeply thank Dan
Eshet, primary writer of the text, for his dedication to this project. He collected
ideas from a wide range of scholars and many fields and then crafted them into
a comprehensive narrative of which we are proud. We are indebted also to Marty
Sleeper, a veteran educator, for his insights and deep understanding of the chal-
lenges America faced during the 1930s and 1940s. Marc Skvirsky dutifully read
all the drafts of this book; thanks to his suggestions, the book is deeper and
broader in its scope than it would have been otherwise.
Many thanks to Elisabeth Fieldstone Kanner, whose experience as a teacher and
curriculum writer helped make this publication more accessible and easy to use
in classroom settings. Nicole Breaux supervised the first half of the project’s life,
while Eva Radding managed its final stages. Jen Gray brought the text to life
through her photo research and permissions work. Ilana Klarman edited parts
of the text. We would like to thank Catherine O’Keefe and Maria Hill, our pub-
lishing colleagues, who managed the design and printing of this book. Dim-
itry Anselme, Mary Johnson, Adrianne Billingham Bock, Milton Reynolds, Steve
Becton, and Phredd MatthewsWall contributed constructive criticism and com-
mentary during the writing of this book, and their suggestions influenced many
aspects of the development of the text. A special acknowledgment is due to our
grant writer, Jan Stanwood, for her dedicated work to fund this project.
Lastly, we also want to give warm thanks to the interns who helped us write
this publication: Gillian Grossman, who worked days and nights to complete
an impressive first draft of the sections dealing with the deliberation of the
Declaration in the United Nations; Megan Henry, who sought out our organi-
zation and worked here selflessly during most of the summer of 2009; and Gil-
lian Hawley, who donated so much of her precious time to see that this book
was ready for publication. We’d also like to acknowledge the hard work of Alicia
Tuzour and Chelsea Prosser, whose efforts on this project's behalf are very much
appreciated.
When will our consciences grow
so tender that we will act to
prevent human misery rather
than avenge it?
—Eleanor Roosevelt, 1946
o
Surely a world that can achieve
the atomic bomb, but fail in the
creation of the United Nations, is
morally bankrupt. And this moral
bankruptcy is the reason for our
failure to organize peace.1
—John Humphrey, 1949

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface by Adam Strom, Director of Research and Development,
Facing History and Ourselves..................................1
Foreword by Allida M. Black, Director and Editor,
the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project; and Mary Jo Blinker, Associate Editor,
the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project ............................5
Part I: Who Was ElEanor roosEvElt?
IntroductIon ...........................................15
Self-Annihilation .......................................18
No Ordinary Life .......................................20
Eleanor and Franklin ....................................25
Independence .........................................27
Women in Power .......................................30
First Lady .............................................34
A Utopia Softly Sketched.................................35
Racial Awkwardness.....................................45
”A . . . Mother Hen for All Rescue Agencies” .................53
“Paper Walls”..........................................59
Japanese Internment Camps..............................63
Document  Becoming Eleanor
Document  Refusing to be “Frozen Out”
Document  “ The Basic Thing We Must Do Is to Stop Generalizing
About People”
Document  Marian Anderson and the Daughters of the American
Revolution
Document  Eleanor and the Jewish Refugee Crisis (1939)