Chapter 5: Eleanor's Universal Declaration

April 1945: Franklin Roosevelt is now deceased, and Eleanor must leave the White House and determine her next chapter.  From her memoir:

          I rode down in the old cagelike White House elevator… with a feeling of melancholy and something of uncertainty, because I was saying good-by to an unforgettable era and I had given little thought to the fact that from this day forward I would be on my own… If you have been married for forty years and if your husband has been president of the United States…, you have made personal readjustments many times… I had to face the future as countless other women have faced it without their husbands. (p. 283)

One decision Eleanor made for herself was to live her new life in a slightly different environment: she decided against living in the main house at Hyde Park, and chose to live in the cottage on the property, Val-Kill, which she was already utilizing as a workspace during her years as the First Lady of New York and the United States (this was a genius idea, as living in the main house would have likely prolonged her grieving period).  On the one-year anniversary of Franklin’s passing, the Roosevelt family transferred the estate to the U.S. government, which would be added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Eventually, Eleanor came to the decision that she wanted to continue working and filled her time writing her columns, appearing on radio and television, going on lecture tours, and reading manuscripts for the Junior Literary Guild.  I can imagine so many former Presidents and First Ladies want to rest after even spending four years in the White House; Eleanor spent twelve, and seems to be as busy if not busier than she was in the White House!

In spite of her continued busy schedule, Eleanor received the opportunity of her lifetime in December 1945, when President Truman requested for her to serve as a member of the United Nations delegation.  While initially she wanted to decline due to her perceived lack of experience (I have such respect for her…), she accepted, however needed to await a vote from the U.S. Senate to approve her nomination; she was approved in an almost unanimous vote (only one Senator, Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, voted against).  Eleanor admits she struggled to adapt to her new role due to the lack of women involved in the UN, however managed to remedy the situation by inviting various women loosely involved to tea to discuss the issues present in their respective committees; this experience would provide a great advantage to Eleanor in her tenure.  In Spring 1946, President Truman would ask Eleanor to serve as the U.S. delegate to the UN General Assembly.

While Eleanor’s primary function (as similar to being a member of the U.S. Congress) was to serve as the U.S. delegate, she was selected to be on the Human Rights Commission, a position in which she would serve as the initial chairperson! (surprising considering the Women’s Rights Movement won’t get off the ground until shortly after her death)  The primary role of the Human Rights Commission was to draft a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that would provide given rights every human is entitled to.  Of course, the process of drafting the document and presenting it to the General Assembly was not without challenges: Eleanor disclosed in her memoir that the Soviet Union’s delegation (interestingly led by Dr. Alexei Pavlov, a nephew of famed physiologist Ivan Pavlov, a nice connection to psychology!) challenged the ideas, and in her opinion attempted to make the document sound similar to Communist principles.  Even when presented to the General Assembly for a vote, many Muslim nations abstained from voting due to their belief that the rights ran contrary to the Koran.  In spite of the adversity, the Declaration was accepted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948.*  In 1951, Eleanor stepped down from her chairperson role, however would continue to serve on the commission until 1953.

Once her time in the UN was complete, Eleanor decided it was time to travel, however not for personal reasons but for cultural reasons.  Eleanor disclosed in her memoir that she received invitations to visit various countries.  Her first trip took place in 1952 to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whom she hosted at Hyde Park within a year after Franklin’s death.  Before she could make it to India, the new chairman of the HRC, Charles Malik of Lebanon, encouraged her to travel throughout the Middle East, so her first stop was Beirut.  She would continue to Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Pakistan before finally making to India on February 27, 1952.  Eleanor spent several weeks exploring the various states and learned about the struggles they were facing as they had finally become an independent nation, primarily related to growing enough food to feed their substantial population.

In spring 1953, Eleanor was offered another opportunity to travel, this time for a five-week trip to Japan sponsored by Columbia University.  She was brought on for the trip to help educate Japanese women about democracy.   She and one of her secretaries continued their trip with visits to Hong Kong, Turkey, Greece, and Yugoslavia, simply to go learn about the culture and the impact on their way of life.

Eleanor had been out of political affairs since Franklin’s death, however she thrust herself back into the political spotlight to support Adlai Stevenson’s 1956 presidential campaign against President Eisenhower; she believed that Stevenson “would probably make one of the best presidents we had ever had…” (Roosevelt, 353)  She also advocated for his election due to her observation of many countries’ high opinions of him, specifically how he traveled around the world (like her) to see how countries had been affected by the war.

In 1955, Eleanor packed her bags and resumed traveling.  On this trip she began with a detour in Bali, Indonesia before a semi-official visit to Bangkok, Thailand in which she was requested to serve as a delegate to the World Federation of United Nations Associations.  She also had the opportunity to meet with Queen Juliana while visiting Bali.  In winter 1957, Eleanor journeyed to Morocco at the invitation of the sultan after she intervened on behalf of Jews who had been granted visas to migrate to Israel, however the government complicated their departure.

With all the traveling Eleanor was privileged to undertake, no trip was more significant (and significantly criticized) than her trip to the Soviet Union in 1957.  Unlike the majority of her previous trips, she visited under the official capacity of reporting on the status of the people.  She emphasized her desire to observe life away from Moscow, and would travel to visit farms in Tashkent, as well as visiting Leningrad to see the medical school there to observe pediatric research being done.  In her memoir, Eleanor describes her feeling while in the Soviet Union: “For three weeks in the Soviet Union I had felt more than at any time in my life that I was cut off from all the outside world… I had been among hospitable people but they were people who worked hard, who lived under considerable strain, and who were tired.” (Roosevelt, 383) (Keep this statement in mind when you think about the Russian people today under Putin; nothing has really changed)

Not only did Eleanor receive scrutiny for her trip to the Soviet Union, but also received much criticism and Communist accusations for her meeting with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.  They met at a house in Yalta, the same location where Franklin, Churchill and Stalin met in February 1945.  Eleanor spent two and a half hours in conversation with Khrushchev, and while they did not agree on much, they both agreed that waging a new war would not end well for civilization on the whole.  Khrushchev would return the favor in September 1959 when Eleanor would host him and his wife at Val-Kill on his first visit to the U.S.  Eleanor shared a very important anecdote discussing the Soviet Union trip when she shared attending a circus and observing a release of doves during the finale after a speech which told spectators falsely that the United States was trying to bring about war with them.  Eleanor advises: “We Americans… must never forget or ignore this kind of distorted conditioning of the Russian people, this kind of indoctrination with ideas that are false but that by repetition can be drilled into the minds not only of the Russian people but of peoples in underdeveloped countries whom the Communists seek to turn against the United States.” (Roosevelt, 379-380) (for those unaware, this was around the time the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was just heating up!)  Eleanor joined another trip to the Soviet Union in 1958, however this time her focusing on learning about treatment for the emotionally disturbed children of the country.  In spring 1959, Eleanor traveled to Iran to visit her daughter Anna, and learned that the primary issue in the country was poverty.

Just when Eleanor believed she was done with politics, her advocacy for Adlai Stevenson was once again needed for the 1960 Democratic National Convention, however her work was for not as John F. Kennedy would win the nomination.  While Eleanor was infamously known for her strong dislike of Kennedy, her opinion shifted after he visited her at Hyde Park; in her words: "I found him a brilliant man with a quick mind, anxious to learn, hospitable to new ideas, hardheaded in his approach.  Here, I thought, with an upsurge of hope and confidence, is a man who wants to leave behind him a record not only of having helped his countrymen but of having helped humanity as well." (p. 436) 

In September 1960, Eleanor continued her diplomatic travels, this time to Poland for a meeting of the World Federation of United Nations Association.  In 1961, President Kennedy rewarded her hospitality by appointing her as a delegate to the 15^th session of the UN General Assembly. 

Given how consumed her life was with responsibility, it is still hard to believe time would catch up with Eleanor.  In April 1960, she consulted her personal physician, Dr. David Gurewitsch, complaining of fatigue; he ordered blood tests which came back abnormal and diagnosed her with aplastic anemia (a case study in the American Journal of Medicine published in 2015 states this diagnosis was incorrect, and the correct diagnosis likely was myelodysplastic syndrome).  Her condition worsened over the next two years, to the point in September 1962 she was refusing further testing and spitting out medication; even her own family saw her suffering and wanted it to end.  During the late afternoon of November 7, 1962, Eleanor passed away at her home in New York City at age 78.

The life of one of the most admired Americans has come to an end, but there is so much more beneath the surface for me to explore in her case conceptualization…

*Link to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:   https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/03/udhr.pdf

(THIS IS A MUST READ!!!)