A Sitting President's Memorial

This President's Day article is from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Presidency.




Despite being completely unable to walk, President Roosevelt led the country out of the Great Depression and through World War II during his unprecedented four terms in office. He was the first disabled leader to be elected in American history, but most Americans of the 1930s and 1940s didn't even know their president required a wheelchair. They were aware that Roosevelt had contracted polio in 1921 and were under the impression that he wore braces or used a wheelchair occasionally for convenience. And that's just what FDR wanted them to believe because he was afraid that otherwise the world would perceive him as weak.

(Image source: The U.S. National Archives)


(Image source: Library of Congress)



(Image credit: Flickr user Paul Seegers)


(Image credit: Flickr user Wally Gobetz)

Even though the monument had officially opened, the controversy over FDR's wheelchair continued. By depicting the wheelchair subtly, rendering it almost invisible in the memorial, the FDR Memorial Commission decided to underplay the president's infirmity. They did this despite angry complaints that doing so was a denial of the achievements of people with disabilities and a harmful continuation of the fiction President Roosevelt felt forced to maintain because of the prevailing attitudes of his time. The commission and its supporters argued it would be wrong to revise history and portray what FDR went to such great lengths to actively hide from the world. Activists for the disabled argued that his tremendous achievements in spite of his condition couldn't be properly celebrated or understood without accurately portraying it. Many observers pointed out the fight was largely symbolic: FDR was one of the greatest American presidents and potentially the greatest hero disabled Americans ever had. A memorial recognizing FDR's own private struggle with his paralysis could never undermine the greatness of his personal and public achievements.

(Image credit: Flickr user Charles Pence)






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It is still true. My husband, who can walk, but is in too much pain to take more than a few steps, uses a chair. Much of the time people talk to me instead or talk to him like he is deaf or stupid--it's just his legs that have problems, nothing else! And the ADA has grandfathered so many places in that he still has trouble going places; not enough ramps, doors not wide enough....!
FDR endured great pain and suffering to do the fantastic job he did for our country. Let all see how he TRULY was...
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FDR hid his wheelchair use because he was politically astute enough to know that the medieval attitude toward people with disabilities would lead many to see him as incapable of doing much of anything, let alone being President. Sadly this attitude persists even today.
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