RADIO. During the 1930s and 1940s, radio increasingly became a chief source of news and entertainment. Already well-established in the 1920s, radio had two national networks, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). By 1930, approximately 12 million homes had radio, and by the end of the decade, that number had risen to 28 million, or 80 percent of the population. By 1945, the number was about 33 million. With the development of Bakelite, radios became stylish pieces of furniture around which the family would gather to listen to the comedy of Amos ‘n’ Andy, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Will Rogers, and Bob Hope. Audiences were entertained by such characters as Dick Tracy, The Green Hornet (originally The Hornet), and The Shadow. So convincing was Orson Welles’s 1938 reading of the H. G. Welles novel War of the Worlds as a newscast that audiences believed Martians really were invading, while other listeners were shocked by the sexual references of Mae West in a 1937 skit about the Garden of Eden. Music programs and sporting events were also major attractions, but audiences could also be reached directly by such politicians as Father Charles Coughlin, the “radio priest,” or by the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, through his influential “fireside chats.” During World War II, Americans listened to the radio reports of Edward R. Murrow and others, and it was through radio that many first heard of Roosevelt’s death. Commercial advertising on radio was suspended for several days as the nation mourned. Radio broadcasts covered many of the events of the Cold War era, ranging from presidential addresses to congressional hearings featuring Senator Joseph McCarthy. See also CANTOR, EDDIE; CROSBY, BING; FIELDS, WILLIAM CLAUDE (W. C.); GOODMAN, BENNY; GUTHRIE, WOODOW WILSON (“WOODY”); MILLER, (ALTON) GLENN; PEALE, NORMAN VINCENT; SINATRA, FRANCIS (FRANK) ALBERT; TELEVISION; VALLEE, RUDY; VOICE OF AMERICA.
RAFT, GEORGE (1895–1980). Actor George Raft was born George Ranft in New York City. He changed his name in 1917. Raft’s stage career began as a professional dancer and actor, but in 1929 he went to Hollywood and appeared in his first film, Queen of Night Clubs. Other early films included If I Had a Million (1932) and Night after Night (1932) with Mae West. However, Raft’s big breakthrough came with the lead in Scarface (1932), which established him, alongside Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney, as one of the leading movie gangster characters. Among his other successes were The Glass Key (1935), Souls at Sea (1937), Invisible Stripes (with Bogart in 1939), They Drive by Night (also with Bogart in 1940), and Each Dawn I Die (with Cagney in 1939). After Manpower (1941), Backgound to Danger (1943), and Follow the Boys (1944), Raft’s career declined. The 1950s television series I Am the Law, in which he starred, was a flop, and Raft faced financial and tax problems. He was also denied entry into Great Britain because of his underworld connections. Raft appeared in Some Like It Hot (1959), the original film version of Ocean’s 11 (1960) and Casino Royale (1967). His last film appearance, also with West, was in Sextette (1978). See also CINEMA.
RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACTS, 1934, 1937. The Railroad Retirement Acts were federal laws providing annuity payments for railroad workers, with two-thirds paid for by the companies and one-third by the workers, with retirement at age 65. The first act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935. It was replaced by the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937, which incorporated similar provision but was financed through a tax levied on carriers and employees.
RAILROADS. The railroad industry, which began in the early 19th century and grew with increasing rapidity from the 1830s onward, was central to U.S. economic growth. By 1860, there were more than 30,000 miles of railroad track in the United States. The greatest wave of railroad construction came after the Civil War in conjunction with westward expansion and settlement and massive industrialization in the East. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and by the start of the 20th century more than 200,000 miles of track had been laid.
The railroad industry also witnessed the development of huge corporations headed by entrepreneurs. Despite the beginning of regulation with the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1886, the ruthless profiteering and shady business practices of such men led to calls for reform. Legislation aimed at curbing railroad monopolies and controlling the rates charged by companies was passed under both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. During World War I, the government took over operation of railroads and, although there were calls for the practice to continue, they were returned to private ownership under the Railroad Transportation Act of 1920.
Postwar readjustments led to labor conflict in the industry and a major railroad strike in 1922. The development of the automobile and air transportation and the earlier overexpansion of uneconomic lines placed the industry in an increasingly unfavorable position from the 1920s onward. By 1929, interstate rail travel had fallen by 18 percent. Railroad mileage, which peaked at 254,000 miles in 1916, had fallen to 249,619 miles by 1930. Many railroad companies were heavily in debt and in 1932 were provided with loans by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. In 1933, the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act consolidated the railroads into three regional groups and established a coordinator to prevent duplication of services and bring about greater cooperation. The development of diesel and some new lines contributed to some increase in rail travel in the late 1930s. Reforms were also introduced to benefit rail workers. Two Railroad Retirement Acts providing retirement payments to railroad workers were introduced under the New Deal, the first in 1934. When it was declared unconstitutional in 1935, a second was passed in 1937. Benefits were increased in 1951.
Railroads faced a considerable demand during World War II, and they avoided falling under government control by pooling resources and adopting centralized traffic control. Timetabling was managed through the federal Office of Defense Transportation. The war provided railroads with a new lease on life as they were the major form of freight transportation during the war and experienced a huge increase in passenger travel. However, after the war the railway system again faced competition from road and air transport, particularly after the development of the federal highway system in the mid to late 1950s, and they declined in importance.
RAILWAY LABOR ACT, 1934. An amendment to the Railway Labor Act of 1926 passed to give railway workers the same rights to collective bargaining provided to other workers under the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Railway Labor Act passed on 21 June 1933 established a National Railway Adjustment Board with both employee members and members from trade unions. The act protected workers’ organizations from interference and prohibited “yellow dog contracts” requiring workers to join company unions.
RANDOLPH, A. PHILIP (1889–1979). A. Philip Randolph was born in Florida and attended the Cookman Institute. In 1911, he moved to New York City and took courses at City College. Together with Chandler Owen, Randolph opened an employment office in Harlem to try to unionize fellow African American migrants and enlist black recruits for the Socialist Party. In 1917, Randolph and Owen began to produce The Messenger, a left-wing journal aimed at black audiences. Their opposition to African American participation in the war effort during World War I led to them being charged under the Sedition Act, but the charge was dismissed because the judge believed they were the dupes of white radicals. During the Red Scare, The Messenger was described as the “most able and most dangerous” of all black publications.
After World War I, Randolph voiced opposition to Marcus Garvey’s call for racial separatism and from 1925 onward was involved in trying to organize the Pullman car porters into a trade union. He established the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) with The Messenger as its official publication. In 1935, the BSCP was finally given a charter by the American Federation of Labor and recognized by the Pullman Company in 1937. Randolph was the BSCP president until his retirement in 1968. He was appointed to the New York City Commission on Race in 1935 and also became president of the National Negro Congress concerned with the economic situation of African Americans. Faced with continued discrimination in the developing defense industries, in 1940 Randolph called for a March on Washington to protest in July 1941. Threatened by a potentially embarrassing demonstration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order outlawing discrimination and establishing a Fair Employment Practices Committee to investigate complaints, and the march was called off. Randolph unsuccessfully campaigned for the establishment of a permanent fair employment practices act. With the reintroduction of selective service after World War II, Randolph again mobilized black opinion to protest against segregation in the armed forces, and in 1948 President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981 initiating the integration of the military.
Randolph organized a Prayer Pilgrimage in Washington, D.C., in 1957 and supported Youth Marches for Integrated Schools in 1958 and 1959. In 1955, he was appointed as one of the vice presidents of the newly merged AFL-CIO. It was Randolph who in 1963 suggested a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march was one of the highpoints of the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s. However, Randolph subsequently agreed to a moratorium on demonstrations to support Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election. The same year, Randolph established the Randolph Institute to encourage links between labor organizations and the civil rights movement. Although such actions separated him from the increasingly militant and separatist black power groups, he remained an influential figure in civil rights until his death. See also NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP).
RANKIN, JEANNETTE (1880–1973). Born in Missoula, Montana, Jeannette Rankin was a graduate of the University of Montana in 1902 and the New York School of Philanthropy in 1909. She was a social worker in Seattle in 1909 and became involved in the women’s suffrage campaign. Following Montana’s acceptance of female suffrage in 1914, Rankin was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress when she was elected on a progressive Republican platform in 1916. She voted against U.S. entry into World War I. Having failed to be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1918, Rankin returned to social work and became active in a number of women’s causes and was particularly active in peace organizations, notably the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1940 on an antiwar platform and became a supporter of the America First Committee. Rankin’s vote was the sole vote cast against war in 1941, and she did not seek reelection in 1942 but turned instead to lecturing and working for the National Consumers’ League and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. After World War II, she became interested in nonviolent campaigns for civil rights and visited India several times. She later protested against the war in Vietnam and in 1968 led several thousand women in an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C.
RASKOB, JOHN JAKOB (1879–1950). Born in Lockport, New York, after leaving college John Raskob became a business secretary. He held a number of different posts in business before he became bookkeeper and then personal secretary to Pierre S. du Pont in 1900. While with du Pont, Raskob was involved in the absorption of General Motors. He became finance director and then vice president of General Motors from 1918 to 1928 but continued to work for du Pont until 1946. A multimillionaire, Raskob wrote an article in the Ladies Home Journal in 1929 entitled “Everybody Ought to Be Rich” that seemed to sum-up the 1920s. However, Raskob was a friend and supporter of Alfred E. Smith, and he became chair of the Democratic National Committee in 1928 and supported Smith’s unsuccessful presidential campaign. Raskob resigned his position and returned to General Motors in 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt won the nomination. He subsequently was active in the anti-New Deal American Liberty League, and after he retired in 1946 he was involved in a number of charitable organizations and the Catholic Church. The Empire State Building, which he financed in competition with the Chrysler Building (completed in October 1928 at 1,045 feet tall), is a lasting memorial to him. The Empire State Building was completed in 1931 and stood 1,453 feet tall.
RATIONING. Rationing of raw materials, foodstuff, and consumer goods went into effect during World War II starting with rubber and tire rationing in spring 1942. This was followed with some controls on gasoline in May 1942—primarily to save on rubber—and it was extended to nationwide gasoline rationing in December 1942. As shortages began to effect supplies of meat, sugar, butter, and canned goods, the Office of Price Administration introduced coupons that could be used when purchasing scarce items, beginning with sugar and then coffee. By the end of 1943, many items were rationed in this manner. Neither rationing nor shortages were as severe as those experienced in other nations during the war, and most of the controls were lifted in August 1945. A few continued into 1956.
RAYBURN, SAMUEL (1882–1961). Born in Tennessee, Samuel Rayburn’s family moved to Texas in 1887. Rayburn graduated from East Texas Normal College in 1903 and then taught for two years. In 1906, he was elected as a Democrat to the state legislature, where he became speaker of the house. He also studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1908. In 1912, Rayburn was elected to Congress, where he became a close associate of John Nance Garner. Rayburn rose to importance in the House, and as Chair of the House Interstate Commerce Committee, he had considerable influence on New Deal legislation, particularly the Securities Act of 1933, Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, and the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. Rayburn became speaker of the house in 1940 and held the post until 1957, other than when the Republicans were in the majority from 1947 to 1948 and 1953 to 1954. Rayburn worked closely with Harry S. Truman, remained loyal when the Dixiecrats bolted the party in 1948, worked to enable the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960, and helped to nurture the career of Lyndon B. Johnson. Known for his honesty, integrity, and political know-how, the Rayburn House Office Building built in 1965 adjacent to the U.S. Capitol is a memorial to his name.
RECESSION OF 1937–1938. Known as the “Roosevelt Recession,” the downturn in the economy of almost 30 percent between September 1937 and June 1938 was a major setback for the New Deal. It was prompted in part by cuts in federal spending and the impact of the new Social Security taxes. Although the economy improved from mid-1938 onward, full recovery did not come until government spending increased with defense preparations from 1940 forward. See also ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN DELANO.
RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION (RFC). The RFC was established by Congress in 1932 after the recommendation of Herbert Hoover to “provide emergency financing facilities for financial institutions,” and to “aid in financing agriculture, commerce, and industry” to counter the effects of the Great Depression. Its primary concern was to halt the run on banks and restore faith in the financial system to encourage a revival of industry. It was initially headed by Charles Dawes and was described by some as a “rich man’s dole.” Before the end of the Hoover administration, the RFC had lent $1.5 billion to banks, mortgage loan companies, railroads, insurance companies, and agricultural credit organizations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the RFC’s role as a major funding agency supporting other New Deal agencies, and it was grouped with other agencies as the Federal Loan Agency in 1939. It survived in various forms and was involved in financing a number of war-related activities involving the purchase and sale of vital war materials. Its capital stock, originally $500 million, was reduced in 1948 to $100 million. Revelations of various financial irregularities and misuse of funds involving members of the Democratic Party in the 1950s led to its dissolution in 1954.
RED BALL EXPRESS. The Red Ball Express was the code name given to the supply route than ran from Cherbourg on the French coast to frontline U.S. troops between 25 August and 16 November 1944 following the breakout from Normandy after D-Day. Approximately 6,000 trucks were used to move more than 12,000 tons of supplies daily to enable the Allied advance to continue. Many of the truck drivers were African American servicemen.
RED CHANNELS. Subtitled “A Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television,” Red Channels was a booklet produced in 1950, written by a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Theodore Kirkpatrick, and a right-wing television producer, Vincent Harnett, and published by the right-wing journal Counterattack. It listed 151 individuals in theater, film, and radio broadcasting with links to left-wing organizations. Among those named were harmonica player Larry Adler, musical director and conductor Leonard Bernstein, actor Lee J. Cobb, composer Aaron Copland, writer Dashiell Hammett, folksinger Pete Seeger, and playwright Arthur Miller. All were blacklisted by Hollywood until they cleared their names before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Some chose not to do so.
REED, STANLEY FORMAN (1884–1980). Born in Kentucky, Stanley Reed studied for his B.A. at Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1902 and Yale University in 1906, where he graduated in 1908. He studied law at the University of Virginia and Columbia Law School but did not complete his program. He spent a year at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1908. Reed was admitted to the bar in Kentucky in 1910 and established a practice in Maysville that year. He served in the Kentucky General Assembly from 1912 to 1916, leaving to serve in the army in World War I. After the war, Reed worked for a law firm and was appointed general counsel to the Federal Farm Board by Herbert Hoover in 1929. In 1932, he became counsel to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and in 1935 was appointed solicitor general.
In 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Reed to the Supreme Court, where he consistently upheld New Deal measures involving federal regulation of the economy. Generally regarded as a moderate, Reed wrote the majority argument in Smith v. Allwright and later supported the decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka against segregation in schools. He retired in 1957 and became a judge in the lower courts. He was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to chair the U.S. Civil Rights Commission but declined the appointment to maintain the impartiality of the judiciary.
REGIONALISTS. The regionalists were a group of artists who focused on rural scenes, mainly in the Midwest, and celebrated the American landscape and history. Chief among them were John Steuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton, and Grant Wood. Wood perhaps summed up the underlying themes of the movement best when he said he depicted “a country rich in the arts of peace, a homely, loveable nation, infinitely worth any sacrifice necessary to its preservation.” The artists shared many of the attributes of those producing work in the “American Scene” in that they reflected American themes and styles rather than those of European modernists. See also ART.
REORGANIZATION ACT, 1939. The need to improve the efficiency and management of the federal government was an increasing concern in the 1930s with the growth of government agencies in the New Deal and regular charges of waste and inefficiency. In 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a Committee on Administrative Management to examine the issue, and it reported in 1937. The report called for the creation of six executive assistants and a permanent National Resources Planning Board to assist the president; executive control of accounts and budget proposals; and additional cabinet posts, together with civil service reform. Linked by many people to the president’s attempt at “court packing,” critics viewed the measure as another step toward excessive presidential authority. In 1938 the Executive Reorganization Bill was defeated in both houses of Congress. An amended bill, excluding civil service reform and the creation of new departments, was passed in 1939. Following the passage of this legislation, Roosevelt was able to establish a Federal Security Agency, Federal Works Agency, Federal Loan Agency, and Executive Office of the President to consolidate management of government.
REPEAL AMENDMENT. See TWENTY-FIRST AMENDMENT.
REPUBLICAN PARTY. For much of the latter half of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century, the party of Abraham Lincoln—the Republican Party—dominated politics, controlling both the White House and Congress. However, from the turn of the century onward, the conservative element in the party was increasingly challenged by progressive insurgents demanding reform. Those divisions enabled Woodrow Wilson to win the presidential election in 1912, and the Democrats also gained control of both the House and the Senate. The demise of the reform impulse and the reaction to the Versailles peace settlement and League of Nations at the end of World War I restored some unity to the Republican Party and enabled them to regain control of the White House under Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Nonetheless, a number of progressive Republicans like William Borah, Hiram Johnson, and George Norris followed an independent line. The Republicans had majorities in the House and Senate from 1919, until the Great Depression destroyed their credibility and led to a Democratic landslide in the election of 1932 that saw Franklin D. Roosevelt triumph with the promise of a New Deal.
The Democratic domination of Congress tightened in 1934, and the ineffectual Alf Landon was easily beaten by Roosevelt in 1936. In the 75th Congress from 1937 to 1939, the Republicans only held 16 Senate seats to the Democrats’ 76 and 88 seats in the House to the Democrats’ 334. However, following Roosevelt’s attempted “court packing,” a further downturn in the economy, and a wave of industrial disputes, the Republicans began to regain some ground and, led by Robert A. Taft, were able to form a “conservative coalition” with southern Democrats in Congress. Divisions within the party resurfaced in response to the growing conflict in Europe. Taft and Arthur H. Vandenberg were both staunchly isolationist, while others led by Henry L. Stimson and Frank Knox argued for support for Great Britain and France. In 1940, with the campaign for nomination divided between Taft, Vandenberg, and Thomas E. Dewey, the party united behind the dark horse, Wendell Willkie, who won on the sixth ballot. He was defeated convincingly by Roosevelt in the election.
During World War II, the Republicans continued to gain ground in Congress, and in 1942 the “conservative coalition” was strengthened by Democratic losses outside the South. Although they increased their numbers in Congress, the Republicans could still not win the wartime presidential election, and Dewey was defeated in 1944. However, a massive swing in their favor enabled the party to capture both houses in the 80th Congress from 1947 to 1949 and promised victory in the presidential campaign against Harry S. Truman in 1948. However, when Truman presented Congress with a series of reform measures, which the conservatives overwhelming rejected, he labeled it “the do-nothing Congress,” and his whirlwind cross-country campaign produced an upset victory against Dewey. The Democrats regained control of Congress in 1949, but the Republicans recovered and won the presidency with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. By this time the party was aggressively anticommunist in foreign policy, probusiness in economic policy, and against waste and inefficiency in government. It was but inclined to accept basic social welfare provision.
RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION (RA). The RA was created in 1935 to coordinate several agricultural policies under the New Deal and provide assistance for displaced farmers under the leadership of Rexford Tugwell. The RA was also empowered to assist farm tenants become homeowners. It was intended that some 500,000 families would be resettled, but only 4,441 were, and most attention was given to providing camps for migrant workers and the building of three towns under the Suburban Resettlement scheme. Because of continued problems in rural areas, the RA was replaced by the Farm Security Administration in 1937.
REUTHER, WALTER (1907–1970). Future labor leader Walter Reuther was born in West Virginia and left school at the age of 16 to work. In 1927, he went to Detroit, Michigan, to work for Ford Motor Company. In 1932, he went to Europe and spent two years working in the automobile industry in the Soviet Union. He returned to the United States in 1935 and in 1936 became a labor organizer for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the United Auto Workers (UAW). He led a successful sit-down strike in 1936 and took part in the Flint Strike in 1937. He was badly beaten by men working for Ford Motor Company outside the River Rouge plant in Detroit. During World War II, Reuther became the UAW vice president and in 1946 president. In 1946, he called upon General Motors (GM) to give a 30 percent increase in wages without raising the price of their automobiles, arguing that it would boost consumption and help avoid a return to the conditions of the Great Depression. In 1948, he won an automatic cost of living agreement from GM and subsequently linked wage rises to productivity.
Reelected to the UAW presidency in 1947, Reuther took a strong anticommunist position and was a founding member of Americans for Democratic Action. He also worked to establish procedures that would avoid strikes and helped win pensions and health benefits as part of the auto workers’ contracts. In 1952, Reuther became president of the CIO and helped secure the merger with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1955. However, he withdrew the UAW from the AFL-CIO in 1968 because of what he saw as the organization’s complacency. He was killed in an air crash in 1970.
REVENUE ACT, 1942. One of the most important revenue acts introduced during World War II, the Revenue Act of 1942 for the first time extended federal income tax to the majority of the working population. Personal exemptions were lowered to $500 for single individuals and $1,200 for married couples. In 1939, only 4 million Americans paid income tax. In 1943 this number rose to 43 million, and by the end of the war it was 50 million. Surtaxes, corporation taxes, and inheritance taxes were also raised. In 1943, the system of payroll tax deductions on a “pay-as-you-go” system was introduced.
REVENUE ACTS, 1935, 1936, 1938. Reversing the trend of the previous Republican administrations and indicative of the more radical approach of the “Second New Deal,” the Revenue Acts increased general taxes, estate and gift taxes, and excess profits taxes and introduced an undistributed profits tax on corporate income. The Revenue Act of 1935, dubbed the Wealth Tax, increased the tax on incomes more than $50,000 from 59 percent to 75 percent and more than $5 million to 79 percent, and it also increased estate taxes and corporation taxes. These measures prompted an angry response from business interests and also attracted criticism from those who believed the increased taxes triggered the Recession of 1937–1938. In 1938, Congress repealed the undistributed profits tax and increases in normal taxes introduced in 1936, but they were forced to restore some of these when President Franklin D. Roosevelt threatened to veto the bill. Eventually a compromise bill retaining certain elements passed without the president’s signature.
RHEE, SYNGMAN (1875–1965). South Korean leader Syngman Rhee spent most of the time between 1905 and 1945 in exile. He spent several years in the United States and studied at George Washington University and Princeton, where he obtained a Ph.D. He was elected president of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in 1948 and maintained power throughout the Korean War. He was reelected in 1952, 1956, and 1960. However, his increasingly authoritarian rule provoked a popular uprising, and he fled to Hawaii in 1960.
RIDGWAY, MATTHEW BUNKER (1895–1993). Born to a military family in Fort Monroe, Virginia, Matthew Ridgway graduated from West Point in 1917. During World War I, he served in the United States. After the war, he held a number of peacetime positions, including postings in China, Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil, and the Philippines. In 1942, Ridgway took command of the 82nd Division, the first airborne division in the U.S. Army. He led them in action in North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy. In 1950, he successfully took command of the demoralized U.S. Eighth Army, which had been pushed back by the Chinese in the Korean War, and in April 1951 he replaced the disgraced General Douglas MacArthur as commander of the United Nations (UN) forces. Under his leadership, UN forces maintained the stalemate with their Chinese and North Korean opponents rather than seek territorial gains. In May 1952, Ridgway replaced General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the supreme allied commander in Europe for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The following year he became the U.S. Army chief of staff. However, Ridgway was opposed to the “New Look” policy of reliance on air power and nuclear weaponry and the principle of “massive retaliation,” and he retired in 1955. He became an executive at the Mellon Foundation, but as an advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, he spoke out against escalation of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam.
RIO PACT. The Rio Pact, formally known as the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, was agreed upon at the meeting of American nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 15 August and 2 September 1947. While it represented a continuation of the “Good Neighbor” Policy and was a formulation of the agreement at Chapultepec, the pact established a regional defense alliance that was further developed in the creation of the Organization of American States as part of the policy of containment. The importance of the agreement was highlighted by President Harry S. Truman’s attendance at the final sessions of the meeting. See also FOREIGN POLICY.
ROBERTS, OWEN JOSEPHUS (1875–1955). Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he graduated in 1898. He practiced law in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and for 22 years taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In 1918, Roberts became a special deputy U.S. attorney. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge appointed him, together with Atlee Pomerene, to prosecute those involved in the Teapot Dome scandal.
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover nominated Roberts to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court following the death of Edward Sanford. With the new chief justice Charles Evans Hughes, Roberts held the balance between the conservatives and liberals in the court. The court became increasingly liberal on issues of freedom of speech and, in the case of the Scottsboro Boys, on the right of defendants to have counsel appointed for their defense. However, Roberts tended to side with the conservatives in cases concerning the extension of government authority under the New Deal. But following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempt to alter the composition of the court, Roberts made “a switch in time that saved nine” and sided with the liberal group to uphold minimum wage laws, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Social Security Act. Roberts tended to be more conservative on civil rights and civil liberties and supported white primaries in 1935, compulsory flag salutes, and the pledge of allegiance in public schools in 1940. However, he dissented against the decision to uphold the evacuation of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Following his retirement in 1945, Roberts was dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1948 to 1951. He was also chair of the security board of the Atomic Energy Commission. His Holmes lectures at Harvard Law School in 1951 were published as The Court and the Constitution (1951).
ROBESON, PAUL LEROY BUSTILL (1898–1976). American singer, actor, athlete, and civil rights activist Paul Robeson was born the son of a former slave in Princeton, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers College. An outstanding scholar and athlete, he became the first African American all-American in football in 1917 and again in 1918. Following his graduation in 1919, Robeson went to Columbia University Law School, where he obtained his degree in 1923 and began working in a New York City law firm. Following a racial slight, he gave up law and joined Eugene O’Neill’s Provincetown Players and starred in All God’s Chillun Got Wings and The Emperor Jones in 1924. Robeson began his solo singing career with a performance of gospel songs at Carnegie Hall in 1925 and was celebrated for singing and acting in various musicals, most famously for his performance of “Ol’ Man River” in Showboat (1928). In 1930, he achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal of Othello in London, and he went on to appear in 11 movies, including Song of Freedom (1936), King Solomon’s Mines (1937), and Proud Valley (1940), in addition to film versions of his stage successes. He was the best-known black entertainer of his day.
Embittered by racial prejudice in the United States, Robeson spent more time performing in Europe after 1928. In the 1930s, he visited the Soviet Union and became an advocate of communism. He went to Spain in 1938 to support the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. He returned to the United States at the outbreak of World War II and achieved great success when he became the first African American to play the lead in Othello in the United States in 1943. After the war, Robeson continued to support left-wing causes and was a founder and chair of the Progressive Party. His political sympathies and outspoken remarks led to his being investigated by congressional committees, which labeled him a communist and led to his being blacklisted as an entertainer. His passport was revoked from 1950 to 1958, effectively destroying his career. The Soviet Union awarded Robeson the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952, and he left the United States in 1958 and did not return until 1963. He lived out his remaining years in virtual seclusion but was remembered with several awards for his contributions to the arts and civil rights. See also CINEMA; LITERATURE AND THEATER.
ROBIN MOOR. The Robin Moor was an unarmed U.S. merchant ship sunk by a German submarine in the south Atlantic Ocean 700 miles off the coast of Africa on 21 May 1941. The crew was cast adrift in lifeboats with limited supplies. In a message to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt deemed it “an act of piracy” and called for action to resist the spread of German naval power.
ROBINSON, EDWARD GOLDENBERG (1893–1973). Born Emanuel Goldenberg to a Jewish family in Bucharest, Romania, Edward G. Robinson, as he was later known, came to the United States with his family in 1903. After attending high school in New York City, he enrolled in City College of New York but won an acting scholarship and began his stage career under his new name in 1913. He served in the navy during World War I. Robinson appeared in more than 30 New York stage plays between 1913 and 1929 and in his first named film role in 1923. His career took off after his role as the gangster Rico in Little Caesar in 1931. He was cast in similar roles in several B movies, including Five Star Final (1931), Smart Money (1931), Tiger Shark (1932), and Kid Galahad (1937) with Humphrey Bogart. In the 1940s, he starred in The Sea Wolf (1941) and two biographical studies, Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1940) and A Dispatch from Reuters (1940) and played successful roles in such thrillers as Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1945), and Scarlet Street (1945), before returning to a gangster role to critical acclaim in Key Largo (1948), again with Bogart.
Robinson was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee on more than one occasion between 1950 and 1952, and under pressure he named several communist sympathizers in the film community. His film career declined afterward, but he had some success in A Hole in the Head (1959) with Frank Sinatra, The Prize (1963), and The Cincinnati Kid (1965) with Steve McQueen. Among his last films were Mackenna’s Gold (1969) and Song of Norway (1970). Robinson was given an honorary Oscar in 1973 shortly after his death. See also CINEMA.
ROBINSON, JACK (“JACKIE”) ROOSEVELT (1919–1972). Born in Georgia, Jackie Robinson grew up in Pasadena, California, and was a student at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he became the first student to letter in four sports—football, basketball, baseball, and track. He played professional football for the Los Angeles Bulldogs in 1941 and joined the army in 1942. He successfully fought to be admitted to integrated officer training but was court-martialed for refusing to accept segregation in public transport in 1944. He was given an honorable discharge. He joined the all-black Kansas City Monarchs baseball team in 1944 but was signed by Branch Rickey for the minor league team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Montreal Royals, in 1946. On 15 April 1947, Robinson became the first African American to play major league baseball when he appeared for the Dodgers. Despite considerable abuse and provocation from some players and crowds, he was a great success, becoming rookie of the year in 1947 and the National League’s most valuable player in 1949, and he helped the Dodgers win six National League pennants between 1947 and 1956. He became the first African American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Following his retirement from baseball in 1957, Robinson became vice president of Chock Full o’Nuts, a coffee house chain. He retired from that position in 1964 to campaign in the political arena. He was also active in civil rights as a member and fundraiser for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and he campaigned for the appointment of a black baseball manager. In 2005, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
ROCKWELL, NORMAN (1894–1978). Norman Rockwell was born in New York City and attended the Chase Art School in 1910. He quickly found work as a book and magazine illustrator and in 1913 became an editor and an illustrator for Boy’s Life magazine. He provided illustrations for many magazines and journals. However, he is best known for his covers for the Saturday Evening Post—he produced more than 320 between 1916 and 1963. Rockwell’s paintings focused on scenes from U.S. history and everyday life and always depicted warmth and humor. In 1943, he produced four paintings for the Saturday Evening Post representing the Four Freedoms. They had such an impact that they were used as war posters by the Office of War Information in support of war bonds, and it was estimated that they helped raise $130 million. Equally famous was Rockwell’s painting of Rosie the Riveter that appeared on the Saturday Evening Post cover on 29 May 1943. Beginning in 1963 Rockwell produced illustrations for Look magazine and portraits of such presidents as Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. His work featured space flight, civil rights, and the war on poverty. Rockwell died on 8 November 1978 in his home with an unfinished painting on his easel. See also ART.
RODGERS, RICHARD (1902–1979). Songwriter Richard Rodgers was born in Arverne, New York, and studied at Columbia College, where he met lyricist Lorenz Hart and formed a successful partnership that lasted until 1942. After leaving Columbia College in 1921, Rodgers studied at the Institute of Musical Art in New York City. In 1935, he and Hart had their first success with The Garrick Gaieties and then produced a string of hits, including The Girl Friend (1926), A Connecticut Yankee (1927), and Evergreen (1930). From 1930 until 1934, Rodgers and Hart worked in Hollywood but were not enormously successful. In 1935, they returned to Broadway and for five years had a string of hits, but in 1941 Rodgers began writing with Oscar Hammerstein as Hart’s physical and mental health deteriorated. In 1943, the new partnership had its first success with Oklahoma!, which had a record-breaking run of more than 2,248 performances. This was followed by other great productions, including Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959), all of which eventually appeared in film form. Their partnership ended with Hammerstein’s death in 1960.
Rodgers was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes, seven Tony Awards, and an Oscar, among several other prizes in recognition of his contribution to music. See also CINEMA.
ROGERS, GINGER (1911–1995). Born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, dancer and actress Ginger Rogers began performing in vaudeville in 1925 and by 1930 had appeared in a few short films and on Broadway, most notably in Top Speed from 1929 to 1930 and Girl Crazy from 1930 to 1931. In 1933, she appeared in a number of films, including 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Flying Down to Rio, with Fred Astaire. Thus began a successful partnership that continued with The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Rogers also made several films without Astaire, including Stage Door (1937) with Katherine Hepburn, and Vivacious Lady (1938) with James Stewart. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress in Kitty Foyle in 1940 and appeared in a number of films in the 1940s, including Tales of Manhattan (1942), I’ll Be Seeing You (1944), and It Had to Be You (1947). She was reunited with Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) and made several other successful films in the 1950s. Rogers returned to the stage and toured in both musicals and nonmusicals between 1951 and 1984, including Annie Get Your Gun, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Mame, Anything Goes, and Hello, Dolly! From 1954 onward, she also made a number of television appearances. Her last film role was in Harlow in 1965, and her last stage performance was in Charley’s Aunt in 1984. See also CINEMA; LITERATURE AND THEATER.
ROGERS, WILL (WILLIAM PENN ADAIR) (1879–1935). A Cherokee born in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, Will Rogers began his career as a cowboy in Texas in 1898. In 1902, he traveled to Argentina as a cowhand and then onto South Africa. It was in South Africa that he found work in a Wild West show riding and roping. He toured in New Zealand and Australia before returning to the United States. During performances with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1916, Rogers developed his style of humorous social commentary. In 1920, he began to write columns for the press, particularly for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1918, Rogers also began appearing in motion pictures. He made 48 silent comedies before turning to sound film in 1929. A series of movies in which he played different western personas appeared in the 1930s, including State Fair (1933), David Harum (1934), and Steamboat ’Round the Bend (1935). Rogers became a well-known radio personality during the 1930s, and his folksy wit and humorous observations on political and other matters seemed to capture a popular mood for nostalgia. When he died in an airplane crash in Alaska in 1935, he was heavily mourned. See also CINEMA.
ROONEY, MICKEY (1920– ). Born Joe Yule to a vaudeville family, Mickey Rooney took his stage name in 1932 after starring in a series of silent movies from 1927 to 1936 in a role as Mickey McGuire. He went on to be a child star in the 1930s, particularly as Andy Hardy, a character he played in 15 films starting with A Family Affair in 1937. Rooney also played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1935 and starred in Boy’s Town in 1938. He made several musicals with another child star, Judy Garland, including Babes in Arms (1935), Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), and their last film together, Words and Music (1948). Rooney starred in nonmusical roles in such successes as The Human Comedy (1943) and National Velvet (1944), where he played opposite a young Elizabeth Taylor. He entered the military in 1944, and after World War II his cinema career was less successful, although still extensive. Among his most memorable films were The Bridge of Toko-Ri (1954), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), and The Black Stallion (1979). Rooney appeared in 200 movies and in 1983 was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Motion Pictures.
ROOSEVELT, (ANNA) ELEANOR (1884–1962). Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City into America’s social elite. Her uncle was President Theodore Roosevelt, and Eleanor benefited from the best education available, despite the death of her parents at an early age. When she returned from her schooling in London, England, Eleanor joined the National Consumers’ League and worked with immigrant children. In 1905, she married Franklin D. Roosevelt, a sixth cousin once removed. The couple had six children between 1906 and 1916, one of whom died as an infant. She was for a long time dominated by her husband’s mother, but during World War I, Eleanor began to develop an independent public role when she worked for the Red Cross and Navy League. She came to an accommodation with FDR after discovering his affair with her own social secretary, Lucy Mercer, and became more involved in activities with women’s suffrage groups and trade unions, particularly the League of Women Voters, Women’s Trade Union League, and Women’s Division of the Democratic National Committee. Her independence further developed in 1921 following FDR’s affliction with poliomyelitis, a crippling viral infection that left him permanently disabled. Eleanor helped him overcome the disability and continue his political career. Eleanor herself later developed a relationship with reporter Lorena Hickok that was clearly extremely close, possibly even physical.
By 1928, Eleanor headed the Women’s Division of the Democratic Party, and when FDR became governor of New York, she often performed inspections of state facilities on his behalf. Once FDR became president, Eleanor acquired the role of an active first lady, transforming the position as much as her husband did the presidency. She was often attacked for her actions on behalf of women and African Americans and for the views she expressed in speeches, radio broadcasts, and her daily newspaper column, “My Day,” that began in 1935. In 1939, Eleanor publicly announced her resignation from the Daughters of the American Revolution after the organization refused to allow black opera singer Marian Anderson to perform in Constitution Hall. Roosevelt helped arrange an alternative performance at the Lincoln Memorial. She continued to campaign on behalf of African Americans during World War II.
During the war, Eleanor served briefly as assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense, but her service ended following congressional criticism. She worked energetically throughout the war on morale-raising activities, visiting many parts of the United States, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Great Britain. Following FDR’s death in 1945, Eleanor was appointed U.S. representative to the United Nations (UN), a position she held until 1953. She chaired the Human Rights Commission from 1946 to 1951 and was instrumental in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Eleanor twice visited the Soviet Union in the 1950s. She also campaigned on behalf of birth control and continued to have some influence on the Democratic Party. John F. Kennedy appointed her as representative to the UN once more in 1961 and as chair of the National Commission on the Status of Women. See also HICKOK, LORENA ALICE (“HICK”).
ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN DELANO (1882–1945). 32nd president of the United States. Born in Hyde Park, New York, into a wealthy family, Franklin D. Roosevelt was educated at Groton School, Harvard, and Columbia University Law School. He briefly practiced law in New York City before entering the state senate as a Democrat in 1910. In 1913, he was appointed assistant secretary of the navy, a post previously held by his uncle, Theodore Roosevelt. His role in the navy enhanced his reputation, and after the war he was nominated as the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate to run alongside James M. Cox in the unsuccessful campaign of 1920.
In 1921, Roosevelt developed polio, which left him severely paralyzed and threatened to destroy his political career. However, aided by his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, he fought to overcome the disability and in 1928 succeeded Alfred E. Smith as governor of New York. As the effects of the Great Depression began to tell, Roosevelt introduced measures to develop public electric power, reduce utility rates, and provide relief for the unemployed. He was reelected in 1930 and then defeated Smith and John Nance Garner to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932. He broke with tradition and flew to Chicago, Illinois, to accept the nomination. In his speech on 2 July, he promised “a New Deal for the American people,” and this quickly became the label applied to his New Deal program. His election campaign was impressively vague, but he projected a positive air and promised an “enlightened administration.” He was critical of Herbert Hoover for failing to balance the budget and increasing government bureaucracy.
Roosevelt won a convincing victory with 57 percent of the popular vote to Hoover’s 40 percent and 472 Electoral College votes to 59. He did little between his victory and his inauguration but did survive Guiseppe Zangara’s assassination attempt in February 1933. However, declaring there was “nothing to fear but fear itself,” in his inaugural address in March 1933, he promised a wide-ranging program of measures to combat the deepening Depression. He followed up with a remarkable wave of action in what became known as the “First Hundred Days,” establishing the New Deal as a reforming administration of unheard-of proportions. The New Deal formed the basis of the modern welfare state and the framework of U.S. politics for the next half century, and Roosevelt served an unprecedented four terms, being reelected in 1936, 1940, and 1944.
Roosevelt outlined the approach of the New Deal in a “fireside chat” on 28 June 1934, when he called for relief, recovery, and reform. In the “First New Deal,” the emphasis was on relief and recovery, and the deal witnessed a flood of legislation to halt the financial collapse (Emergency Banking Act), restore faith in financial institutions (Securities Act, Securities and Exchange Act), provide work for the unemployed (Public Works Administration, Civil Works Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps), encourage industrial and agricultural recovery (National Industrial Recovery Act, Agricultural Adjustment Act), and tackle problems of soil erosion, flood control, and regional poverty (Tennessee Valley Authority).
This plethora of alphabet agencies marked a massive departure in the role of the federal government and established Roosevelt as one of those most significant figures in modern U.S. history. A “Second New Deal” from 1935 to 1937 had more emphasis on reform and is often seen as a move to the “left” in response to radical criticisms and the persistence of high unemployment and poverty. In addition to increasing taxes on wealth and business (Revenue Acts, Wealth Tax Act), relief was further extended in 1935 with the Works Progress Administration and National Youth Administration. Agricultural problems were further addressed by the Resettlement Administration in 1935, which was later replaced by the Farm Security Administration. Problems of poverty in old age and the issue of unemployment insurance were tackled with the Social Security Act of 1935, while conditions at work and the right to trade union membership were dealt with for the first time by federal government in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. This reform came to an end due to increasing congressional opposition, particularly following Roosevelt’s attempt at “court packing” to alter the balance of the Supreme Court to protect the new legislation. Politics also became increasingly dominated by foreign affairs and the approach of war with Europe.
Roosevelt moved the United States to support Great Britain in the conflict with Germany, through the Destroyers-for-Bases Agreement, the Lend–Lease Act, and the joint statement with Winston Churchill in the Atlantic Charter in 1941. Following the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, described by Roosevelt as a “date which will live in infamy,” the president asked Congress for and received a declaration of war. As commander in chief Roosevelt headed the enormous mobilization of U.S. manpower and industrial might. “Dr. New Deal” was replaced by “Dr. Win the War,” and a wave of war agencies displaced many of the New Deal bodies. The war also effectively ended the Depression and brought full employment and job opportunities for women and African Americans. During the course of the war, Roosevelt headed discussions with the Allied powers—Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China—and met with other leaders at the Moscow, Tehran, and Yalta conferences. He established good relations with both Churchill and Joseph Stalin, but critics later suggested that he failed to take a tough enough stand against the Soviet leader and created problems for his successors.
Having defeated Republican candidate Wendell Willkie in 1940, the American people reelected Roosevelt in 1944 when he defeated Thomas E. Dewey. He died in office on 12 April 1945, leaving his vice president, Harry S. Truman, the unenviable task of following one of the greatest leaders in U.S. history.
“ROOSEVELT RECESSION.” See RECESSION OF 1937–1938; ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN DELANO.
ROSENBERG, ETHEL GREENGLASS (1915–1953) and ROSENBERG, JULIUS (1918–1953). Both Ethel Greenglass and Julius Rosenberg were born to Jewish families in New York City. They met as members of the Young Communist League in the 1930s and married in 1939. Julius graduated from City College of New York in 1939 in electrical engineering. Ethel worked as a secretary. In 1940, Julius Rosenberg joined the Army Signal Corps and worked on radar equipment. He was dismissed in 1945 after being accused of being a communist, and together with Ethel and her brother, David Greenglass, they established a machine shop in Manhattan. When David Greenglass, who had worked in Los Alamos, New Mexico, on the atomic bomb, was charged with spying in 1950, he named his sister and brother-in-law as spies who had passed secrets to the Soviet Union. Greenglass was the chief witness against the Rosenberg’s in their trial, which began on 6 March 1951 and which was aggressively prosecuted by the assistant U.S. attorney, Roy Cohn. Neither of the Rosenbergs would answer questions about their links with the Communist Party of the United States of America. They were convicted on 29 March 1951 and executed by electrocution on 19 June 1951, despite international appeals on their behalf. The Rosenbergs were the only U.S. spies executed. In the 1990s, material from the Soviet archives suggested that Julius Rosenberg was guilty but cast doubt on the conviction of Ethel.
ROSENMAN, SAMUEL IRVING (1896–1973). One of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s closest advisers and speechwriter and editor of the president’s public papers and addresses, Samuel I. Rosenman was born of Ukrainian Jewish parents in San Antonio, Texas. He moved to New York City with his family in 1905. Rosenman served in the army during World War I and then attended Columbia University and Columbia University Law School, graduating in 1919. A Democrat, he was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1921 and retired in 1926 to work with the state Legislative Drafting Commission. Rosenman began writing speeches for Roosevelt during his gubernatorial campaign in 1928 and subsequently became the governor’s chief of staff. It was Rosenman who coined the phrase “New Deal” in Roosevelt’s speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932. In 1933, he won election to the New York State Supreme Court and also continued his speechwriting and advisory role in the White House. In 1943, he resigned from the court to act as special counsel to the president during World War II and was involved in the creation of the Office of Production Management and the National Housing Agency. After Roosevelt’s death, Rosenman continued as an adviser to Harry S. Truman until 1946, when he retired to take up private practice. He served on a number of public bodies before his death and was actively involved in Jewish causes.
ROSIE THE RIVETER. Rosie the Riveter was the iconographic figure who appeared on several war posters and in a propaganda film during World War II to encourage women to enter war industries. In 1942, using Michigan factory worker Geraldine Doyle as a model, graphic artist J. Howard Miller produced a poster of a woman war worker with her sleeve rolled up, flexing her muscle under the slogan “We Can Do It!” for the Westinghouse company that became widely distributed. A song titled “Rosie the Riveter” was released in 1942; in 1943, Mrs. Rose Will Monroe, a worker in Willow Run, Detroit, and mother of two, appeared in two films about war workers. Norman Rockwell then produced a cover painting for the Saturday Evening Post on 29 May 1943 featuring a muscular woman in dungarees with a riveting gun across her lap, in which he used 19-year-old Mary Doyle Keefe as his model. Numerous photographs of women workers in the shipyards and aircraft industry were also used. Miller’s poster was used on a postage stamp in 1999, and a Rosie the Riveter Memorial Park was opened on the site of a wartime shipyard in Richmond, Virginia, in 2000.
ROTHSTEIN, ARTHUR (1915–1985). Born in New York City, Authur Rothstein studied science and became interested in photography at Columbia University, where he met Roy Stryker. In 1936, he joined Stryker’s team of photographers at the Resettlement Administration, later replaced by the Farm Security Administration. Rothstein’s work included powerful images of the Dustbowl and the poverty of rural life, most famously perhaps in his images of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, in 1937. In 1940, he went to work at Look magazine. From 1943 to 1946, he worked with the Army Signal Corps before returning to Look, where he worked until 1972 when he joined Parade. Rothstein also taught at Columbia University and other universities through the 1960s and authored a number of books on photography and photojournalism. See also ART.
ROYALL, KENNETH CLAIRBORNE (1894–1999). Born in North Carolina, Kenneth Royall graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1914 and Harvard Law School in 1917. He served in the army during World War I and began a private law practice in 1919. Royall was president of the North Carolina Bar Association from 1929 to 1930. In 1942, he became legal secretary in the Army Service Forces and unsuccessfully defended eight German saboteurs who were tried in secret by military commission. Six were executed. In 1945, he became special assistant and then undersecretary to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Royall carried out the reform of the court-martial system. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman appointed him secretary of war, and when that office was replaced by secretary of defense, Royall became secretary of the army. He retired in 1949 to practice law in New York City until 1968. He also served on the Presidential Racial Commission in 1963.
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ADMINISTRATION (REA). Created within the Department of the Interior by executive order on 11 May 1935, the REA was funded with $40 million a year for 10 years to assist states and farm cooperatives in bringing electric power to rural areas. By 1939, 417 cooperatives and almost 300,000 farms had received electric power. In 1939, the REA was transferred to the Department of Agriculture. By 1951, more than $2.35 billion had been loaned, and electric lines had been laid to supply 3.5 million consumers. See also AGRICULTURE.
RUTLEDGE, WILEY BLOUNT (1894–1949). Born in Kentucky, Wiley Rutledge attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated in 1914. From 1915 until 1920, he taught in schools in Indiana, New Mexico, and Colorado. He obtained his law degree from the University of Colorado in 1922 and practiced law in Boulder, Colorado, from 1922 to 1924. After teaching at a number of law schools, he became dean of the law school first at Washington University in 1930 and then at the University of Iowa College of Law in 1935. He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia in 1939 and the Supreme Court in 1943. A staunch supporter of the New Deal, he was also a civil libertarian, supporting the right to jury trial and religious freedom.