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Easter Egg Roll: Years Without an Easter Monday
The egg roll holds such an important place in White House history that no president wants to be known for canceling it. World War I and food rationing stopped the event from being hosted at the White House. In 1942, egg rollers were sent back to the Capitol grounds, the place from which they had been ousted 66 years before. World War
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Easter Egg Roll: Fanfare and Keepsakes
Over the years, White House egg roll events have been made memorable by new attractions. In 1993, the Clintons scaled back the fanfare so that children would remember the day for its egg rolling games. A generation earlier, First Lady Pat Nixon gave out certificates of participation as a souvenir to eggrollers. First Ladies Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter distributed plastic
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Easter Egg Roll: Games, Old and New
The primary Easter Monday entertainment at the White House has always involved egg rolling. Participants roll dyed, hard-boiled eggs across the grass to see whose will go the furthest before cracking. Other egg sports enjoyed in the early years were egg ball, toss and catch, egg croquet and egg picking—a contest where eggs are pecked together until they crack. Af
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Easter Egg Roll: The Holiday Bustle and Hustle
As the Easter Monday event became more of an attraction, a rule was fixed to limit the number of people coming into the enclosed South Lawn. The rule stated that a "grown person would be admitted only when accompanied by a child" and vice versa. As a result, unescorted egg rollers and childless adults began teaming up at random so
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1862 Emancipation Petitions
The Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln “Civil War Washington” website has posted the 1862 Emancipation Petitions, providing widespread access to these primary documents. To meet the requirements of the D.C. Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862, slave owners filed a petition with the District government that stated their loyalty to the Union, listed the number and
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19th Century White House Staff
For most of the 19th century, the structure of the White House staff remained generally the same. At the top was the steward, a federal employee who was bonded; the Congress created this position to safeguard the silver and furnishings in the house. The steward was on the government payroll. He functioned as the manager of the house. The job
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Colin Powell
On August 10, 1989, President Bush announced his appointment of General Colin Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell became the architect of Operation Desert Shield, a staging operation that moved American and international forces and materials to the Middle East to launch Operation Desert Storm. As President Bush’s trusted advisor, Powell helped shape a global alliance that ex
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E. Frederic Morrow at the White House
E. Frederic Morrow was the first African American to serve in an executive position on a president’s staff at the White House. Morrow was a minister’s son who had graduated from Bowdoin College and was employed by the National Urban League and the NAACP before entering Army service during World War II. After the war, he obtained a law
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Marian Anderson Performs at the White House
One of the most memorable performances in White House history was Marian Anderson’s rendition of Schubert’s "Ave Maria" as the culmination of a gala "Evening of American Music" presented by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1939. The entertainment was planned for a state visit by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England. Anderson’s powerful voice soared that evenin
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President Truman and Civil Rights
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball on April 15, 1947 signaling a historic step forward in the movement to end segregation. However, a less conspicuous event of greater significance to African Americans was President Truman’s controversial 1948 executive order desegregating the military and banning discriminatory hiring practices in the federal government. Issued in an election year, the executive or
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William Monroe Trotter Challenges President Wilson
Civil Rights activist and journalist William Monroe Trotter caused a stir in 1914 because he strongly protested President Woodrow Wilson’s support for segregation of black federal employees in the workplace. Trotter came to the White House as a founder and representative of the National Independent Political League, a militant organization that fought for racial and social justice, and the publisher of
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Italian State Dinners at the White House
January 14, 1964: State Dinner for Italian President Antonio Segni was hosted by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Featured entertainment included Robert Merrill of the Metropolitan Opera and the New Christy Minstrels. President Segni and his wife were given a silver box, engraved with maps of both countries and a sentence from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (“Italy remains to all, the land of dreams an