Inside The Vault: Eleanor Roosevelt, “Four Basic Rights,” and Desegregation
by Gilder Lehrman Staff
Originally broadcast on August 21, 2020, this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection explores a 1944 letter by Eleanor Roosevelt defending the four basic rights of all Americans and desegregation in war-related industries. Gilder Lehrman curators were joined by Chris Brick from the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project and Valerie Gilson, an educator at Xaverian High School in New York City. In our discussion, we demonstrate how text can be manipulated and why it is important to go back to the source.
Click here to download the slides from the presentation.
Classroom-ready resources for the documents presented
- Eleanor Roosevelt’s letter on the four basic rights of all Americans
- Allida Black’s essay Eleanor Roosevelt on the “Four Basic Rights”
Use the timestamps below to jump to the documents you want to view
- Eleanor Roosevelt’s letter on the four basic rights of all Americans: 4:40–32:03