In June 1904, Roosevelt graduated from Harvard University. Announced her engagement to Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in December. Eleanor belonged to the Oyster Bay branch of the Roosevelt family and was the daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt's brother Elliott. Although Eleanor was born into a wealthy family, her childhood situation was very pitiable. Her loving mother died when she was very young; her father, Elliott Roosevelt, eventually died due to alcoholism. Eleanor was brought up by her grandmother, Mrs. Hall. Grandma's family lived in Tivoli, next to the Hudson River, in a large, gloomy house called "Oak Mesa", illuminated by oil lamps and candles. Eleanor's mother was the first of the Hall children. Eleanor had a young, jovial aunt and an alcoholic uncle, Valley Hall, in Oak Terrace. Her baby brother, Hall Roosevelt, was also fostered there. Mrs. Hall couldn't control her own children, so as a kind of compensation, she disciplined her granddaughter in the most traditional way. The old lady stuck to the rules and was extremely strict. Eleanor was almost as unable to be free as the canary fed by the widow of an aristocratic family.

In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt became the President of the United States and Eleanor became the First Lady of the United States. Eleanor was very supportive of the civil rights movement and believed that racial discrimination was undemocratic. As soon as Eleanor became First Lady, she announced that she would hire black people to help her manage the household.

In 1938, Eleanor attended the Southern Human Welfare Conference in Birmingham. Local law stipulates that blacks and whites must sit on opposite sides of the hallway. Eleanor angrily asked the staff for a chair, and despite the shocked expressions of the white people around her, she resolutely sat in the corridor to express her dissatisfaction. Eleanor understood the importance of civil rights issues during World War II, so she repeatedly emphasized during the war that there could be no true democracy in the United States without African-American democracy. For this reason, Eleanor received a lot of threats, but she was not afraid and still often went deep into the black settlements in Washington to conduct investigations.