November 8th, 1932. It's election day. The United States of America is well into the great depression and almost every measurable statistic was at its worst. The results have come in, the electoral vote is a landslide; 472 to 59.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an aristocrat from New York, has been elected President of the United States. With Eleanor Roosevelt, the country's new First Lady, at his side the two would go on to make their mark on history and pave the way for those who would follow their footsteps. But how did this political dynamo, a man disabled by disease and the orphaned niece of a former president, make it to the highest office of the land in the country's greatest time of need?
Both were born in New York, Franklin in 1882 and Eleanor in 1884. The children of prominent New York figures, the two would live very different childhoods. Young Franklin was an only child, educated by tutors until he would attend Groton School for boys in 1896, a Massachusetts preparatory school for the wealthy. Eleanor was orphaned by the time she was 10, her mother, father and one of her brothers all passing away a year apart from each other. Left only with two siblings, she was sent to school in England in 1898 where she was enlightened through European culture and visiting the impoverished, working class areas of France and Italy.
Franklin started at Harvard in 1900, becoming editor of the university's newspaper and graduating in 3 years, though only a "C" student. Eleanor returned to the United States in 1902 after her uncle, Theodore Roosevelt, became president following the assassination of William McKinley. She became a teacher at a community center for immigrant workers, where she would further develop her opinions on social reform.
In 1902, on a train to Tivoli, New York, Eleanor and Franklin met related as fifth-cousins with the mutual family member of Teddy Roosevelt. Throughout the end of Franklin's time at Harvard, the two met for lunch on a regular basis and attended social events together throughout 1903. By the end of that year, their friendship had grown greatly and Franklin proposed.
The engagement was kept secret at the wishes of Franklin's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, who wanted them to wait a year to see if they were still in love with each other before announcing it, as they were still young in her eyes. Franklin went on to study Law at Columbia University and Eleanor joined the Consumers League, a labor lobbying organization.
A year later, in 1904, their engagement was announced and the two married in 1905, Eleanor was walked down the aisle by her uncle Teddy. The couple moved into the home selected by Franklin's mother. They had their first child and only daughter, Anne Roosevelt, in 1906 and would go on to have 5 more children, though one passed away within a year of birth. Franklin passed the bar exam in 1907 but was quickly bored by the practice, and began a career in politics in 1910. He was elected to the New York state senate in 1911, and following the start of World War I, Eleanor volunteered with the American Red Cross and aided in Navy Hospitals.
In 1918, Franklin had an affair with his secretary and though he and Eleanor remained married the intimacy of their marriage was effectively drained. Two years later, Franklin was the vice-presidential pick for democratic nominee for president, James M. Cox. Eleanor became a close ally to the campaign, responsible for making regular political decisions.
Cox and Roosevelt were ultimately defeated by Warren G. Harding and Franklin returned to practicing law in New York. In the summer of 1921, Franklin contracted polio effectively binding him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
By 1924, Eleanor had become a public figure in New York, becoming vice-president of the Democratic Women's Committee and writing for various magazines. She began teaching at a prestigious women's academy in 1927.
Franklin returned to politics in 1928 when he became Governer of New York, and he set his eyes on the presidency. Campaigning through the worst of the great depression, FDR called for progressive government intervention in the economy to provide relief for the suffering American people. Eleanor was worried by the prospects of leaving her own political life behind in becoming the First Lady but she supported her husband none the less.
Roosevelt would win the election in 1932, and institute his "New Deal" programs that would begin aiding the US economy. He also led the country through WWII, defeating the Axis powers alongside other allied nations. FDR would be re-elected an unprecedented three times and is hailed for restructuring the Democratic party. He would pass away three months into his fourth term in 1945.
Eleanor revolutionized the position of First Lady. She held her own press conferences, open only to women journalists, where she talked about bolstering women's roles in politics, journalism, and political communication. She also became the first white member of the Washington D.C. chapter of the NAACP. She would outlive her husband and passed away in 1962.
The two are buried together in Hyde Park, New York.
