On January 6, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the U.S. Congress in a State of the Union address, asking for support to help European nations struggling against Adolf Hitler’s government in Germany. At the time, the U.S. was still about a year away from declaring war. As part of his speech, Roosevelt stated that the U.S. had an obligation to protect universal freedoms, and he listed “four freedoms” that United States citizens shared with people of the world.
The four freedoms he listed were: the freedom of speech and expression, a person’s freedom to worship God in the way of one’s choice, the freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In the recording below, Roosevelt mentions the four freedoms starting at around the 5:25 mark.
Roosevelt’s speech inspired painter Norman Rockwell to do a series of paintings depicting the four freedoms. And, after World War II and after Roosevelt died, his widow Eleanor Roosevelt invoked these four freedoms as she pushed for the passage of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
United Nations “Four Freedoms” flag via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
