Endless Work for a Peaceful World

Lys Anzia – WNN Features

On March 8, 1960 Eleanor Roosevelt walked shyly into the lecture hall at Brandeis University nodding slowly to each of the hundreds who sat on the edge of their chairs in attendance. After all it was the famous Eleanor Roosevelt, that wife of Franklin, who was sometimes known for upstaging her charismatic husband. Eleanor had come full circle into her own power in the world after the death of her husband.

She completed sixteen books. She hosted and produced radio shows for ABC and NBC in the years between 1948 and 1951. Public Television station WGBH in Boston hosted her show called “Prospects of Mankind” from 1959 to 1962. She became an active guiding force for the NAACP, The Advisory Council for the Peace Corps, Americans for Democratic Action, and the National Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy.

Standing on the platform of that hall in 1960 at Brandeis University giving a personal hello to each person, Eleanor talked for over an hour on the conditions of the world. She talked of the problems of nations coming together, of the essential ingredients that brought the first days of the United Nations to a stronger focus. She lectured on the concept of nations as neighbors and families reminding everyone of the true original promise of the U.N., to bring the world to peace.

In the mid-1940s the United Nations was formed in an attempt to solve international disagreements and turmoil. The U.N. followed The League of Nations to give rise to the notion that the world could exist as nations together joined in the concept of no more war. Those days were exciting days. Days of a new prospect in world history.

That night at Brandeis University, Mrs. Roosevelt came to speak after being appointed by President Kennedy to fill a job once again of U.S. ambassador to the U.N. If you had been sitting in the audience you would have seen her tall and aging body before you in the chamber and you would have been overwhelmed with her grace. Her strong voice carried years of experience and grit. The audience was hushed.

In 1960, no one knew better than Eleanor Roosevelt the full original intent of the United Nations. For her outspoken words she had received death threats from the likes of the Ku Klux Klan as she refused Secret Service protection. In the 1950s, she opposed McCarthyism and held the notion that systems of government must not be enforced by formal machineries but voted in by its people. It was in 1948 that Mrs. Roosevelt was appointed the first ambassador to the U.N. as she became a strong advocate and guiding force for the committee that would also draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.