FDR Hid That He Couldn't WALK for 12 Years

For twelve years, the most powerful man in America could not walk. Almost no one knew.

In 1921, long before the White House, Franklin Roosevelt was struck by polio. It paralyzed him from the waist down for the rest of his life.

As president, he hid it in plain sight. He used heavy leg braces and gripped a son's arm to appear to walk a few steps. He was almost never photographed in his wheelchair, and the Secret Service stopped anyone who tried.

And the press went along with it. Reporters and photographers honored an unspoken agreement not to show his disability. Of thousands of pictures, only a couple capture him in the chair.

Americans elected him four times, through the Depression and a world war, without ever seeing that their commander in chief could not stand on his own.

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