Booker T. Washington Visits the White House
Theodore Roosevelt became president after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. The early months of his administration were a...
Booker T. Washington's Dinner with President Theodore Roosevelt
How Long? 2 minutes
A lithograph depicting Booker T. Washington dining with President Theodore Roosevelt.
CorbisPRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
The Lie Nailed that he is Opposed to the Negro. The First President to Entertain A Negro. Booker T. Washington Dined.
The many false reports that have been circulated that President Roosevelt was opposed to the negro has been eliminated by the many kind acts that he has done prior to his election, and while he was Vice President and since he has been President. While governor of New York a distinguished colored singer was denied in Albany, New York in one of the hotels. The circumstance having reached Mr. Roosevelt he went in person and invited the citizen to his residence where he gave him lodging. When he assumed the office of vice President his first act was to appoint a colored man an executive messenger against the protest of certain officials. Since he assumed the office of President he entertained Prof. Booker T. Washington in the Executive Mansion on last Wednesday evening.
The first President of the United States to entertain a colored man. These many acts of recognition of the negros how [sic] that President Roosevelt is a man.
[inset: a sketch of Booker T. Washington with the caption, "Prof. Booker T. Washington; Dined by President Roosevelt – No color line in the White House – An Object Lesson for the South."]
Article Credit: Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, Library of Congress
Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
You Might Also Like
-
-
Wormley Hotel
Lafayette Square in the 19th century was the epicenter of political, social and civic activity in Washington, D.C. Originally...
-
African Americans & The Decatur House
Few people know the story of a brave woman named Charlotte Dupuy who was enslaved in Decatur House, the large...
-
Nell Arthur's Memorial Window
Stained glass, a medieval art, was revisited in the historically retrospective nineteenth century. The art was a prominent feature of...
-
The Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square
The Dolley Madison House, a yellow structure on the corner of H Street and Madison Place in “The President’s Neig...
-
Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings was born in 1799 at Montpelier, the Virginia estate of James and Dolley Madison. His mother, a slave of...
-
The Wings of Franklin Roosevelt
The first president to travel by airplane was actually a former president. On October 11, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt accompanied aviator Archibald Hoxsey...
-
The Life of Eugene Allen
Eugene Allen served in the White House for 34 years. Assisting eight presidents, Allen’s top priority was to make the Wh...
-
"A Communication Between These Offices"
When David Baillie Warden remarked in 1816 that “it was originally proposed to form a communication between the [executive departmental] offices an...
-
African Americans Enter Abraham Lincoln's White House, 1863-1865
The New Years’ Day reception became a White House tradition with President John Adams in 1801 and ended with President Herbert Ho...
-
Presidential Valets
Throughout the history of the presidency, a president’s clothing choices have been influenced by a number of factors. Personal ba...
-
The President's Park
A recent magazine article described the garden of the White House, “known as the President’s Park,” as covering 82 acres and en...