Allida Black: Eleanor Roosevelt and the 1960 Elections

Eleanor Roosevelt and the 1960 Elections
Word for Word (American Public Media)



Historian Allida Black says Eleanor Roosevelt's influence went far beyond being First Lady. Besides being a driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mrs. Roosevelt played a key role in the 1960 Democratic primary battle between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. In a 2007 speech at the Minnesota History Center, Black tells the story of how Roosevelt was one of Kennedy's most vocal critics — and one of his most important allies — during one of the closest presidential elections in the history of American politics.

To Listen to the Episode