Eleanor Roosevelt and the Media

Professor Allida Black talked about the operations of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University and displayed some of the holdings. She also talked about how the longest serving first lady participated in politics, focusing on her use of newspaper columns, radio, speaking tours, books, and television to communicate her ideas. Many still and motion pictures were shown as well as video and audio clips. Audio clips heard included segment of her radio program, including her regularly scheduled radio program from December 7, 1941. Video clips shown included Mrs. Roosevelt interviewing President Kennedy in 1961 for her “Prospects of Mankind” educational television program; a 1940 video appeal for the Red Cross; Universal newsreels from 1933 and during the war; President Roosevelt’s funeral; addressing the United Nations in 1952; a 1948 television speech for Human Rights Day; and being interviewed on the “Longines Chronoscope” television program. close