GI Bill

About the Author

No single individual wrote the GI Bill. Officials of the Roosevelt administration, officers of the American Legion, and members of Congress all helped to formulate the legislation. Three individuals, however, played major roles: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Warren H. Atherton, and John Rankin.

Born in Hyde Park, New York, on January 30, 1882, Franklin D. Roosevelt grew up in a wealthy, aristocratic family. He graduated from Harvard University in 1904, attended Columbia Law School, and passed the New York bar examination in 1907. Inspired by his cousin, the Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, he entered politics but joined the Democratic Party. After serving in the New York State Senate, he became assistant secretary of the navy in 1913, a position he held during World War I. Roosevelt was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 1920, but he lost the election in a landslide. In 1921, Roosevelt became ill with polio and could never walk again unaided. But he resumed his political career and was elected governor of New York in 1928. In 1932 he defeated Herbert Hoover to win the presidency.

Roosevelt became president during the worst period of the Great Depression, which had begun in 1929. When he entered the White House, unemployment stood at 25 percent, banks were failing in record numbers, and many Americans were losing homes or farms because they could not make mortgage payments. Roosevelt took immediate and swift action during what became known as the Hundred Days, as he persuaded Congress to pass a variety of measures to boost the economy and provide help to workers, farmers, and businesses. This New Deal, which created many new government agencies to regulate the economy, also afforded protections for workers and consumers. During Roosevelt's first term, the New Deal expanded to include some important social and economic reforms, such as Social Security. But while the New Deal improved the economy and gave people hope for the future, it still did not end the depression. Not until war broke out in Europe and in Asia and the United States began to strengthen its defenses in 1939–1940 did the unemployment rate drop to single digits.

In 1940 Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term as president. During his last four years in the White House, he met the global challenges of World War II and helped organize the United Nations to prevent another major conflict. He was elected president for a fourth time in 1944; as his final term began, victory in World War II had almost been achieved. But only weeks before the end of the fighting in Europe, on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died of a stroke. Millions of American mourned a leader whose achievements in war and peace made him one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history.

Warren H. Atherton was born in San Francisco on December 28, 1891, and passed the California bar examination in 1913 even though he had no formal training in law. He enlisted in the army in 1917 and served in France during World War I. He became a judge in Stockton, California, and also participated in the activities of the American Legion, a new veterans organization. In 1943 he became the American Legion's national commander and took the lead in pressing Congress to pass a comprehensive package of benefits for men and women who served in World War II. In 1953 he was a member of a commission that advised President Dwight D. Eisenhower on military training. He died on March 7, 1976.

John Rankin was born on March 29, 1882, in Itawamba County, Mississippi, and earned a law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1910. He won election to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat in 1920, the first of sixteen consecutive terms. In Congress, Rankin was a champion of public power projects. In 1933 he cosponsored the legislation that created the Tennessee Valley Authority, which helped bring electricity to his largely rural district. Rankin was also keenly interested in veterans issues and served as chair of the House Committee on Veterans' Legislation for more than two decades. A fierce anti-Communist, he was a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the early years of the cold war. A white supremacist and staunch segregationist, Rankin made vicious verbal attacks on African Americans and denounced legislation to make lynching a federal crime. He easily won reelection until the boundaries of his district changed after the census of 1950, and he failed to gain renomination in 1952. He died on November 26, 1960.