The Black History of the White House
Clarence Lusane
Open Media Series | City Lights Books
San Francisco
Copyright © 2011 by Clarence Lusane
All Rights Reserved.
Cover design by Pollen, New York
Cover photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston: White House Easter egg roll, 1898.
The Open Media Series is edited by Greg Ruggiero and archived by the Tamiment Library, New York University.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lusane, Clarence, 1953-
The Black history of the White House / by Clarence Lusane.
p. cm. — (Open media series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87286-532-7
1. White House (Washington, D.C.)—History. 2. African Americans—Washington, D.C.—History. 3. African Americans—Washington, D.C.—Social conditions. 4. African Americans—Washington, D.C.—Biography. 5. Presidents—Relations with African Americans—History. 6. Presidents—United States—Racial attitudes—History. 7. Presidents—United States—Staff—History. 8. Slavery—Washington, D.C.—History. 9. United States—Race relations—Political aspects. I. Title.
F204.W5L86 2011
975.3—dc22
2010036925
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
City Lights Books are published at the City Lights Bookstore,
261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133.
www.citylights.com
To the Lusane House
(Clarence, Zezeh, Ellington, and Jessica)
To Dr. Ronald W. (Ron) Walters (1938–2010), a friend, mentor, and scholar-activist of the highest order whose life made a substantive difference.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Black People, White Houses
CHAPTER I A Declaration of Independence and Racism: Founding Documents, Founding Fathers, and the Preservation of Slavery
Prelude: “Oney’s White House Story
CHAPTER 2 The President’s House in the Home of the Abolitionist Movement
Prelude: Hercules’ White House Story
CHAPTER 3 A White House Built On and With Slavery
Prelude: Peter’s White House Story
CHAPTER 4 Closed Doors: The White House and Presidents of Slavery
Prelude: Paul Jennings’s White House Story
CHAPTER 5 The White House Goes to War: Rebellion, Reconstruction and Retrenchment
Prelude: Elizabeth Keckly’s White House Story
CHAPTER 6 James Crow’s White House
Prelude: Booker T. Washington’s White House Story
CHAPTER 7 The 1960s and the Crisis of Power: The White House and Black Mobilization
Prelude: Abraham Bolden’s White House Story
CHAPTER 8 Black Challenges to the White House The Campaigns to Make the White House Black
Prelude: Marcus Garvey’s White House Story
CHAPTER 9 The Latest Political Milestone: The Obamas in the White House
Prelude: Michelle Obama’s White House Story
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ILLUSTRATIONS
18 What the White House looked like while human trafficking and enslavement of black people was thriving in Washington, D.C., 1858. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
20 African American school children facing the Horatio Greenough statue of George Washington at the U.S. Capitol, circa 1899. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
33 President-elect Barack Obama was about to walk out to take the oath of office. Backstage at the U.S. Capitol, he took one last look in the mirror. January 20, 2009. (White House website)
36 The building where the first president of the United States lived with his family and the blacks they enslaved, High Street, Philadelphia. Breton Lithograph from John Fanning Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1830). (Library Company of Philadelphia)
78 Hercules, cook for George Washington, one of hundreds of blacks Washington enslaved in his lifetime. Painting by Gilbert Stuart, oil on canvas, circa 1795–97. (© Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)
92 Anthony Benezet instructing black children. (Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission, Historical Poetical and Pictorial American Scenes, by J.W. Barber, 1850)
106 Slave pen, Alexandria, Virgina, circa 1863. Photograph by Andrew J. Russell. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
122 Portrait of Phillis Wheatley, the first black woman to have her writings published. Revue des Colonies Paris, 1834-1842, (pbs.org)
124 Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac. Woodcut portrait of the author by unknown artist, 1795. (pbs.org, Historical Documents)
133 The famous Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington that was removed from the White House just before the British army sacked and burned it in 1814. Oil painting by Gilbert Stuart, 1796. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
143 View from northeast of the damaged White House after the British army looted and burned it on August 24, 1814. Hand colored aquatint by William Strickland. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
155 Poster of Blind Tom. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
166 Inauguration of President Lincoln at U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1861. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
170 Portrait of Elizabeth Keckly, 1861. Photographer unknown. (Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University)
177 Group of black “contrabands” make it to a Union camp during the Civil War. Wood engraving, from Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, vol. 18, no. 464 (August 20, 1864), p. 340. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
200 Frederick Douglass, circa 1855. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
204 “Marching on!”—The Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Colored Regiment singing John Brown’s March in the streets of Charleston, February 21, 1865. Wood engraving in Harpers Weekly, v. 9, p. 165, March 18, 1865. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
206 The White House as it appeared around the time Frederick Douglass went there for meetings with President Lincoln. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
211 Sojourner Truth and President Lincoln in the White House, October 29, 1964. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
213 Earliest known photo Harriet Tubman, taken when she was already established as the Moses of her people. Photograph by H. B. Lindsley. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
225 Booker T. Washington, circa 1895. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
234 Black woman working in the White House kitchen, circa 1892. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
239 African American school children and teacher, studying leaves out of doors, circa 1899. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
242 The first black senator and representatives—in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States. Currier & Ives, 1872. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
251 Video from the pro-KKK film, Birth of a Nation, 1915. Film directed by D. W. Griffith. (Epoch Film Co., Madacy Entertainment)
259 Jubilee Singers, circa 1875 (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
261 Frederick Douglass with his grandson, Joseph Henry Douglass, the v
iolinist. (Courtesy of The Frederick Douglass Family Foundation)
264 Marian Anderson, 1940. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
272 Civil rights leaders meet President Eisenhower, June 23, 1958. From left to right: Lester Granger, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, E. Frederic Morrow (White House Staff), President Eisenhower, Asa Phillip Randolph, William Rogers (Attorney General), Rocco Siciliano (White House Staff), Roy Wilkins. Photographer Unknown. (Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum)
305 Martin Luther King Jr. meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House Cabinet Room, March 18, 1966. Photograph by Yoichi R. Okamoto. (Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum)
307 Civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. Photograph Peter Pettus. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
326 Condoleezza Rice in London, England on March 1st, 2005. Photographer Unknown. (United States Department of State)
345 Eli Yamin, Todd Williams, Stephen Massey, Sean Jones, First Lady Michelle Obama, Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Branford Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Delfaeyo Marsalis at the White House, June 2009. (Photo courtesy of The White House)
350 Marcus Garvey August 5, 1924. (Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection)
366 Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for presidential nomination, January 25, 1972. Photograph by Thomas J. O’Halloran. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
387 Eldridge Cleaver speaking at the Woods-Brown Outdoor Theatre, American University, October 18, 1968. Photograph by Marion S. Trikosko. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
414 First Lady Michelle Obama in the White House’s Blue Room, February 18, 2009. Photograph by Joyce N. Boghosian. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
425 President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, in the Green Room of the White House, September 1, 2009. Photograph by Annie Leibovitz. (White House Photo Office)
479 The First Family visiting Ghana, Africa, July 11, 2009. (The White House website)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During the time I was writing this book, Washington, D.C., had one of its worst snowstorms in history. As I waited in an extraordinarily long line at the grocery store, thinking of all the editing and writing I still had to do, a neighbor, who had switched to a much shorter line, beckoned me over. In a relatively short time I had paid for my groceries and was on my way. Her act of kindness likely saved me two hours and allowed me to get back to my desk to keep working. Ultimately, writing is an act of individual discipline, but it takes place in the social world. My neighbor, whom I had never met before and whose name I never knew, and many other unnamed individuals played small and large roles in making this work possible.
As usual, James Steele has always been the brother I never had biologically. He strongly recommended that I take on this project from the very beginning and has always been there whenever I needed him for wisdom, comment, or just a general take on the state of the world (or the NBA). I also want to give a shout to Maurice Jackson, who has kept his eye on this project and sent timely references and notes that fill the seams and crevices of this work. I also thank Clayton LeBouef who provided an important lead in my research on music at the White House.
I have also had the good fortune to be able to count on Darius and Debbie Mans for their helpful insights, caipirinhas, and sage analysis of black politics, U.S. history, and global relations. Debbie was also one of the outside readers I trusted to give me real feedback on the final draft. Others who took this grand task were Wilmer Leon, Keisha Williams, Sylvia Hill, Geoffrey Jacques, and the aforementioned James Steele. Also, I want to express great appreciation to Danny Glover, David Theo Goldberg, Barbara Ransby, and the White House Historical Association.
Greg Ruggiero has more often than not been my repressed brain, creative spirit, and alternate consciousness while writing this book. He has been my indispensable editor. Engaged and passionate, he turned curves into sharp corners, replaced fictions with facts, identified and strengthened weaknesses, and helped to generate reflections. Thank you, Greg.
City Lights Books has been great to work with. Taking a comprehensive approach, the publisher created a website, set up speaking engagements, and made every other effort to ensure the success of this project. Demanding when necessary and supportive all the way, City Lights continues to produce books that advance our public discourse and intellectual life. My deep thanks to Stacey and the entire City Lights staff.
Finally, I want to once again acknowledge the support of my family. From D.C. to Detroit to Brazil to New Jersey to Alabama, my family has always been my encouraging and supportive foundation, the embodiment of all that matters. Above all, Zezeh and Ellington provide inexhaustible happiness and pleasure in my daily (non-writing) life.
INTRODUCTION
Black People, White Houses
African Americans and the Promise of the White House
I, too, am America—Langston Hughes, from his poem “I, Too, Sing America”
More than one in four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery. These presidents bought, sold, bred and enslaved black people for profit. Of the twelve presidents who were enslavers, more than half kept people in bondage at the White House. For this reason there is little doubt that the first person of African descent to enter the White House—or the presidential homes used in New York (1788–1790) and Philadelphia (1790–1800) before construction of the White House was complete—was an enslaved person.1 That person’s name and history are lost to obscurity and the tragic anonymity of slavery, which only underscores the jubilation expressed by tens of millions of African Americans—and perhaps billions of other people around the world—220 years later on November 4, 2008, when the people of the United States elected Barack Obama to be the nation’s president and commander in chief. His inauguration on January 20, 2009, drew between one and two million people to Washington, D.C., one of the largest gatherings in the history of the city and more than likely the largest presidential inauguration to date.2 Taking into account the tens of millions around the globe who watched the event live via TV or Internet, it was perhaps the most watched inauguration in world history. It was of great international interest that for the first time in U.S. history, the “first family” in the White House was going to be a black family.
Obama has often stated that he stands on the shoulders of those who came before him. In terms of the White House, this has generally been seen to mean those presidents he admires, such as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson, who all inspired him in his political career. However, he is also standing on the shoulders of the many, many African Americans who were forced to labor for, were employed by, or in some other capacity directly involved with the White House in a wide array of roles, including as slaves, house servants, elected and appointed officials, Secret Service agents, advisers, reporters, lobbyists, artists, musicians, photographers, and family members, not to mention the activists who lobbied and pressured the White House in their struggle for racial and social justice. As the Obama family resides daily in the White House, the narratives of these individuals resonate throughout their home.
The black history of the White House is rich in heroic stories of men, women, and youth who have struggled to make the nation live up to the egalitarian and liberationist principles expressed in its founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. For over 200 years African Americans and other people of color were legally disenfranchised and denied basic rights of citizenship, including the right to vote for the person who leads the country from the White House. But despite the oppressive state of racial apartheid that characterized the majority of U.S. history, in the main, as Langston Hughes reminds us, black Americans have always claimed tha
t they too are American.
At the end of the nineteenth century, when Jim Crow segregation and “separate but equal” black codes were aggressively enforced throughout the South, few African Americans were permitted to even visit the White House. As Frances Benjamin Johnston’s 1898 photo on the cover of this book indicates, however, black children were allowed to attend the White House’s annual Easter egg–rolling ceremony. Permitting black children to integrate with white children on the White House premises one day a year was acceptable, even though such mingling was illegal in many public spaces throughout the South at the time, including libraries and schools.
The Easter egg–rolling tradition had begun on the grounds of the Capitol, but concern over damage to the grounds led to the 1876 Turf Protection Law, which ended the practice at that site. Two years later, President Hayes—who had won the presidency by promising to withdraw federal troops protecting African Americans in the South from whites who opposed black voting and political rights—opened the White House’s south lawn for the event. By the time of Johnston’s photo, the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision legalizing segregation had been implemented, the last of the black politicians elected to Congress would soon be gone by 1901, and accommodationist black leader Booker T. Washington, who was also photographed by Johnston, was on the ascendant.
For many African Americans, the “white” of the White House has meant more than just the building’s color; it has symbolized the hue and source of dehumanizing cruelty, domination, and exclusion that has defined the long narrative of whites’ relations to people of color in the United States. Well before President Theodore Roosevelt officially designated it the “White House” in October 1901, the premises had been a site of black marginalization and disempowerment, but also of resistance and struggle. Constructed in part by black slave labor, the home and office of the president of the United States has embodied different principles for different people. For whites, whose social privileges and political rights have always been protected by the laws of the land, the White House has symbolized the power of freedom and democracy over monarchy. For blacks, whose history is rooted in slavery and the struggle against white domination, the symbolic power of the White House has shifted along with each president’s relation to black citizenship. For many whites and people of color, the White House has symbolized the supremacy of white people both domestically and internationally. U.S. nativists with colonizing and imperialist aspirations understood the symbolism of the White House as a projection of that supremacy on a global scale.
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