PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of the 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City.
Eleanor experienced tremendous loss at a young age: her mother died in 1892 and her father died two years later, when she was only 10 years old.
In 1905, Eleanor married her distant cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, who later became the president of the United States. Together, they had six children: Anna, James, Franklin (who died as an infant), Elliott, Franklin Jr., and John.
Eleanor became active in public service during World War I, working for the American Red Cross. After her husband suffered from polio, she stepped forward to help hi with his political career.
Eleanor gave press conferences and spoke out for human rights, children's causes, and women's issues, working on behalf of the League of Women's Voting. She also focused on helping the country's poor, stood against racial discrimination, and, during World War II, she traveled abroad to visit U.S. Troops.
On November 7, 1962, Eleanor died of cancer. While she's had her fair share of critics, most agree that she was a great humanitarian who dedicated much of her life fighting for political and social change.
Eleanor's speech "Adopting the Human Rights" was given on September 28,1948 in Paris, France to an audience of thousands of French citizens and delegates of the United Nations.
Her speech was given to show the struggle toward universal acceptance of human rights from those states that were considered, by the United Nations and Roosevelt, non-compliant.
It was written with the intent to unify all nations through common terms and principles surrounding the issues of human rights and freedoms.
Eleanor was using figurative language when she said "It was here the Declaration of the Rights of Man was proclaimed, and the great slogans of the French Revolution--liberty, equality, fraternity--fired the imagination of men." (1948, Roosevelt)
Eleanor's speech was effective in many ways. It helped others see that all people are equal and should be treated equal. It gave rights to many who were without.
