Shortly before President Roosevelt’s State of the Union address was delivered on January 6, 1941, Eleanor published her first My Day column of the year. The essay anticipated many of the themes the president would address in his speech. Though hope was hard to entertain, she believed that many Americans would nevertheless find a ray of hope by working together toward the attainment of “peace with honor and justice for all.”She then mentioned the goals (or “freedoms,” in Franklin’s speech) for which she thought people would be inspired to fight: “Justice for all, security in certain living standards, a recognition of the dignity and the right of the individual human being, without regard to his race, creed, or color.”
