Elizabeth Jaffray
Literary Digest 91 (December
11, 1926): 40.
Library of Congress
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Mrs. Jaffray Makes Some Changes
Historian
William Seale identifies a "strange
hierarchy" that had developed among
the White House domestic staff by the first
decade of the 20th century. At mealtime,
the "top-ranking men," black and
white, were seated together in a pantry,
where they dined upon the President's leftover
food. Maids ate in the servants' dining room
with the footmen. This group was also racially
mixed. Servants farther down the ladder,
such as scrubwomen, sat at yet another table.1
Elizabeth
Jaffray joined the White House staff in 1909
under the Tafts. Hiring Mrs. Jaffray represented
a major change in White House management:
substituting a female housekeeper for a male
steward. Mrs. Jaffray claims to have "immediately
ordered that all the colored servants, regardless
of rank or position,
should eat at a single table and at a given
hour." When objections arose,
Mrs. Jaffray threatened the complainers with
dismissal.2
The New York Times presented
this racial separation of servant tables
as a positive move, because "the same
consideration is shown for one set of workers
as for another. There are still two tables,
the white and black being served separately,
but the quality of the food is the same
for both."3 The Times credited
the first lady, not Mrs. Jaffray, with
this solution. Although not acceptable
today, Mrs. Taft and Mrs. Jaffray’s
mandated “separate but equal” eating
arrangements were viewed by the mainstream
press as representing fair treatment of
employees.
1 William Seale, The President's House (Washington,
The White House Historical Association, 1986),
741–744.
2 Elizabeth Jaffray, Secrets
of the White
House (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation,
1927), 19–20.
3 "All Servants Equal by
Mrs. Taft's Rule," New York Times,
Oct. 11, 1909: 9.
Read more:
Helen
Herron Taft
Helen Herron Taft, Recollections of Full Years. New York: Dodd, Mead,
1914: 349.
Rene Bache, "A Busy Day with the Wife of the President," Washington
Post, Dec. 5, 1909, M6. |
