Why Is Eleanor Roosevelt Important To The Great Depression?

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In today’s society, it is hard to comprehend the struggles and hardship Americans suffered during the Great Depression and the unexpected disaster of the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The Great Depression paralyzed the hard-working Americans leaving one-third of the population living in low poverty. They had minimum sources of food, clothes and health care and the majority lost their jobs, homes, farms, crops, and businesses. During this time, President Roosevelt made a statement during his second inaugural that, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little” (163). In a state of despair thousands of Americans (adults and teenagers) from all …show more content…

Eleanor was the first lady married to president Franklin Roosevelt, she worked tirelessly to understand the effects of the Great Depression. “With boundless energy, she traveled throughout the country, observing conditions firsthand and reporting back to her husband” (166). Eleanor was very important to the people suffering because they counted on her to speak for them and get the word out about their conditions. Eleanor received thousands upon thousands of letters describing their situations and asking for some sort of help. One of the letters coming from Wachapreague, Virginia was from a young girl reaching out for help because she had to miss years of school so she could help support her family. All this young girl wanted was a good education and was willing to work day and night to help pay for it. To get the word out, Eleanor hosted a weekly radio show and even wrote a daily column that could be seen in seventy-five different newspapers. She discussed the everyday issues about the struggling family’s in the mid-west and how she plans to help. “To millions of Americans Eleanor Roosevelt represented the heart of the New Deal” (166). She worked her hardest to make things possible for these families and in the end, the New Deal was a