FDR Statue Victory

By Hugh Gregory Gallagher (HG1932@aol.com)

I am delighted to report that work has begun on the installation of the statue depicting President Roosevelt seated in his wheelchair. The statue will have a prominent position at the entrance of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Memorial, in Washington, DC. The work will be completed by the end of the year, when it will be dedicated by President Clinton.

This statue of FDR seated in his wheelchair, comes as the result of the efforts of thousands of disabled Americans who rallied, raised money, lobbied the Congress, called talk shows, persuaded editorial writers and columnists, so as to commemorate the greatest president of the Twentieth Century as one of us, a person with disability. This generation of disabled people has made it happen.

We Americans with disabilities must thank the sculptor Robert Graham and the architect Lawrence Halprin for their genius and skill in taking our concept and making it real. We must thank the National Organization on Disability - especially Mike Deland and Alan Reich -- for spearheading the drive to raise the money for the statue. Thanks go also to the National Park Service, the Congress for appropriating the money for site preparation and to the President, Bill Clinton, who has supported us all the way.
 

Description of the Statue

I have seen the sculptor's model of the statue and it is excellent! Excellent! It could not be better.

The statue has Roosevelt sitting in the simple wheelchair he designed. The chair consisted of the seat of a kitchen chair to which he attached wheels. He put the big wheels in front, so that he could turn on a dime. The chair, unlike the bulky wicker chairs of the time, could fit in the trunk of a car.

Roosevelt is wearing a rumpled suit, his trademark "pince nez" glasses and the old Fedora hat which he always wore in political campaigns. It was his "lucky" hat. FDR'S legs are clearly smaller than those of an able bodied man; but his powerful shoulders are almost bursting out of his suit coat. His head is tilted a bit upward and, somehow, the artist has caught the strength and confidence of the man, caught the power of his leadership which inspired and propelled a nation through its two great crises -- the Depression and World War II.

The statue, life size, will be placed on the pavement, without a plinth or pedestal. Able bodied people may overlook it or bump into it as they do with people using wheelchairs. Wheelchair users will be able to sit side by side with the President, people who are blind will be able to feel and sense his qualities, and children will be able to sit on his lap.

To be sure that able bodied people do not overlook it, the architect, Lawrence Halprin, has backed the statue with a granite wall 50 feet long, 12 feet high extending out towards the drive way. Upon this wall there will be an inscription 30 feet long which will be placed at wheelchair level. Underneath each letter there will be placed the corresponding Braille symbol. As visitors approach the Memorial, the long wall will reach out to them. Their eyes will be drawn to the inscription and, because of its length, they will be caused to slow and read it, word by word. This will cause them to look and experience the statue and contemplate the achievement of this disabled man.

The inscription is taken from his wife and partner, Eleanor Roosevelt, who said in speaking of FDR's bout with polio and his seven years of rehabilitation, that "he had to think out the fundamentals of living and learn the greatest of all lessons - infinite patience and never-ending persistence." It is a personal and moving message which is entirely appropriate to this most personal statue of the disabled man who was President.

The statue will be unique. Like the Statue of Liberty, it will be a beacon to all nations. It will proclaim that in America, people with disabilities are full citizens, equal in the eyes of its citizenry, empowered with all the rights that Americans have to "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness."