How FDR Hid Paralysis From American Public Even While Campaigning

May 19, 2024

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is renowned as the leader who steered America through the Great Depression and World War II.
During his time in office he was unable to walk unaided, and was reliant on a wheelchair in private.
The White House sought to suppress photographs of the president in a wheelchair out of the public eye, and the Secret Service destroyed pictures taken by journalists defying the request.
Roosevelt even hit the campaign trail while maintaining the pretense that he could walk, using a variety of devices to maintain the illusion.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app

This spring marks 73 years since the death of one of America's iconic presidents.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is renowned as the president the country through two of the greatest crises of the 20th century: the Great Depression and World War II.

But less well-known than his negotiation of grave crises is the president's private struggle with his disability, and the concerted campaign to keep his reliance on a wheelchair out of the public eye.

Franklin Roosevelt holds his Scotch terrier, Fala, on his lap as he talks to Ruthie Bie, the daughter of the Hyde Park caretaker. Roosevelt is sitting on the porch at Hilltop, a small cottage on the grounds of Hyde Park that was his retreat. | Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

While vacationing in Campobello Island, New Brunswick, in 1921, Roosevelt was struck with an attack of polio that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Roosevelt was 39 at the time and and plotting his political comeback after unsuccessfully running as the vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of Democrat James M. Cox in the 1920 presidential election.

Devastated by the loss of his ability to walk, Roosevelt took himself out of the public eye to recuperate.

Through years of practise, Roosevelt managed to train himself to walk short distances using metal leg braces, reliant on the support of one or two other people standing at his side. He also developed his upper body strength, and was praised for his physique by boxer Jack Demspey.

A rare image of President Franklin D. Roosevelt being pushed in his wheelchair while visiting a sick Cabinet member at the old Naval Hospital on E Street. The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

After several years he returned to politics, becoming New York Governor in 1928, and in 1932 became the first — and to date only — disabled man elected to the presidency.

America was more accepting of a disabled politician than he had expected, with citizens "sympathetic to his condition rather than embarrassed," according to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum.

Yet Roosevelt was determined to keep images of his wheelchair use out of the public eye, concerned about the impact on public opinion at a time when many at the very least considered such a disability as a disqualification from high office.

Secret Service agents would block the view of him using a wheelchair, and would requisition and destroy pictures taken by journalists who tried to get round this.