Eleanor Roosevelt

Louis McHenry Howe was an intimate friend and close political advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He, along with Eleanor Roosevelt and Margurite "Missy" LeHand, was one of the few close associates who supported FDR throughout the most difficult stages of his personal and political... recuperation after being afflicted by paralytic illness. Howe is most known for his fierce, astute, and lifelong devotion to the political career of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who publicly credited him for his initial election in 1932. Howe was also well known for his ill health and diminutive appearance which was referred to as "gnome-like" or "ghoulish". Part of this antipathy to his appearance may well have been provoked by the success of the Roosevelt campaigns he managed, doubtless a contributing factor to his sickly appearance was his loss of 32 lbs during the 1932 campaign to elect Roosevelt when he worked day and night and slept in his clothes. Howe inspired legends concerning his power over the president.
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Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for African American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Born in South Carolina... to parents who had been slaves and having to work in fields at age five, she took an early interest in her own education. With the help of benefactors, Bethune attended college hoping to become a missionary in Africa. When that did not materialize, she started a school for African American girls in Daytona Beach. From six students it grew and merged with an institute for African American boys and eventually became the Bethune-Cookman School. Its quality far surpassed the standards of education for African American students, and rivaled those of schools for white students. Bethune worked tirelessly to ensure funding for the school, and used it as a showcase for tourists and donors, to exhibit what educated African-Americans could do.
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Rose Schneiderman was a prominent United States labor union leader, socialist, and feminist of the first part of the twentieth century. She is credited with coining the phrase "Bread and Roses", later used as the title of a poem and set to music and interpreted by several performers. Rose... Schneiderman was born Rachel Schneiderman on 6 April 1882 , the first of four children of a religious Jewish family, in the village of Sawin, 14 kilometres north of Chełm in Russian Poland. Her parents, Samuel and Deborah Schneiderman, worked in the sewing trades. Schneiderman first went to Hebrew school, normally reserved for boys, in Sawin, and then to a Russian public school in Chełm. In 1890 the family migrated to New York City's Lower East Side. Schneiderman's father died in the winter of 1892, leaving the family in poverty. Her mother worked as a seamstress, trying to keep the family together, but the financial strain forced her to put her children in a Jewish orphanage for some time. Schneiderman left school in 1895 after the sixth grade, although she would have liked to continue her education.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. The only American president elected to more... than two terms, he facilitated a durable coalition that realigned American politics for decades. With the bouncy popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" as his campaign theme, FDR defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in November 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression. FDR's persistent optimism and activism contributed to a renewal of the national spirit, reflecting his victory over paralytic illness to become the longest serving president in U.S. history. He worked closely with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in leading the Allies against Germany and Japan in World War II, but died just as victory was in sight.
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