Roosevelt, (Anna) Eleanor (1884-1962)

Eleanor Roosevelt holding a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mrs Roosevelt was chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 1946-51, and was instrumental in the preparation of the declaration.

US social worker, lecturer, and first lady. Her newspaper column ‘My Day’, started in 1935, was widely syndicated. She influenced New Deal policies, especially those supporting desegregation. She was a delegate to the United Nations general assembly and chair of the UN commission on human rights 1946-51, and helped to draw up the Declaration of Human Rights at the UN in 1945. She was married to her cousin President Franklin D Roosevelt, and was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt.

She was born in New York and educated in Europe. After her husband's death in 1945, she continued to work on civil rights for black Americans and for human rights worldwide. Within the Democratic Party she formed the left-wing Americans for Democratic Action group in 1947.