The War of Independence

When her husband became president she was the thirty second First Lady of the United States. When her husband suffered a polio attack she wanted to help him. First, she started politics when her

husband became president. She was depressed from taking that role because she was expected to promote domesticity. She was basically supposed to give parties and host dinners and stay restricted to that only. Many people criticized both her and her husband because she became controversial because she spoke out at events, she gave lectures, she wrote a newspaper column called My Day. She went to speak to the troops, listened to their concerns and sang army songs with them.

Civil Rights Activism

She helped promote civil rights and pushed for integregation of black and white communities. One of the things she did was to help with southern African-Americans because she recognized that the New Deal programs were discriminating against blacks. She became a strong voice for every American to be equal, or get equal benefits regardless of their race. She pushed to make lynching a federal crime and she wanted social reforms. During WW2, she even disagreed publicly with her husband’s order for all Japanese-Americans to be sent to internment camps.