FDR Jr. Dies: Civil Rights Champion Leaves Political Legacy

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. died on August 17, 1988, his 74th birthday, in Poughkeepsie, New York. He had spent a lifetime navigating the peculiar burden of bearing one of the most famous names in American history while building a public career of genuine substance. Born on Campobello Island in 1914, the fifth of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's six children, he grew up in the White House during the Great Depression. He graduated from Harvard and the University of Virginia School of Law. His wartime service in the Navy earned him the Silver Star and the Navy Cross for combat against German U-boats in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. He won a seat in Congress in 1949 and served five terms representing a New York City district. His legislative focus was civil rights and labor protections, positions that put him ahead of much of his own party. He championed fair employment practices and pushed for anti-discrimination measures when the Democratic Party's southern wing still blocked most civil rights legislation. His most significant contribution to American public life came in 1965, when President Johnson appointed him the first chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC was brand new, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and had no enforcement teeth. It could investigate complaints and attempt conciliation but could not sue. Roosevelt built the commission's institutional culture, hired its first staff, and established the procedures for processing discrimination claims. The framework he created survived long after he left and became the foundation for the EEOC's later expansion into active litigation. After leaving government, he moved through business ventures, farming, and an unsuccessful run for governor of New York in 1966. He was married five times. His public life never matched the scale of his father's, but the civil rights infrastructure he helped build affected the working lives of millions of Americans.