Honoring FDR's Legacy

On July 2, 1932 — 75 years ago this past week, Franklin Delano Roosevelt flew to Chicago to stand before the democratic national convention and accept his party's nomination for president where he delivered a speech that forever changed the way Americans think about government.

"I pledge you — I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people," he told the crowd.

"Until that point, in all of American history, the nominees of the major parties did not accept their nominations in person," Jonathan Alter, author of "The Defining Moment, FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope," told Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner. "They actually didn't go to the convention, if you can imagine."

At that point in history, travel by airplane was still very rare. It was only five years after Charles Lindbergh became a worldwide celebrity. The fact that Roosevelt made it there deeply touched the audience.

"The effect was electrifying and people who hadn't liked Roosevelt up to that point were hugging each other, crying," Alter said. "This is the most exciting thing they've ever seen."

Equally astonishing was that FDR, crippled by polio and unable even to stand, had perfected what looked like walking, a bit of political theatre that reassured skeptics that he was fit to lead and made him electable.

Learn more about the hidden steel behind FDR by watching this