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Prominent African-American Women and the White House
Although Michelle Obama was the first African-American first lady of the United States, African Americans have been integrally involved in the history of the White House from its initial construction in 1792.1 Mrs. Obama’s speech during the 2016 Democratic National Convention reminded the nation of a commonly unacknowledged aspect of our shared history, embedded within the structure of the White House it
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"Running from the Temple of Liberty": The Pearl Incident
On April 15, 1848, the Pearl schooner was docked at the wharf located at the foot of Seventh Street in Washington, D.C., waiting for passengers to arrive. The wharf was situated in a less-traveled area of Southwest D.C. and was chosen for its secluded location. The high riverbank, wide stretches of fields, and the lack of buildings in the vicinity
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Building the President's House with Enslaved Labor
In several ways, James Hoban’s life resembles the classic immigrant success story. Born to a modest family in County Kilkenny, Ireland, Hoban studied at the Dublin Society School of Architectural Drawing before seeking greater opportunities abroad. He arrived in the new United States by 1785 and was settled in Charleston, South Carolina, by 1787, where he and his business partner Pierce Pu
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Charles Willson Peale
Charles Willson Peale is synonymous with eighteenth-century portraiture. His depictions of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and other famous Americans are displayed in several of the country’s most prominent art galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the White House. In his lifetime, Peale fostered close relationships with U.S. pr
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"We Shall Overcome"
After the 1964 electoral landslide, President Lyndon Johnson’s political position changed considerably. With a larger liberal majority in both houses of Congress secured, Johnson believed he now had an electoral mandate to move forward on the issue of civil rights. He wasted no time in setting a marker for his goals. In his 1965 inaugural address, Johnson intimated that he would pu
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Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Anti-lynching and the White House
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an American investigative journalist, educator, and activist in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.1 An African-American woman of “striking courage and conviction,” she received national recognition as the leader of the anti-lynching crusade.2 Wells-Barnett sought a federal anti-lynching law that would convict forms of “violence in which a mob, under the pretext of administering justice withou
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Daniel Webster's House
At the corner of H Street and Connecticut Avenue, the United States Chamber of Commerce Building sits where a three-and-a-half story brick house once stood. The house was built in 1828 by attorney Thomas Swann.1 Swann was born in Charles County, Maryland, and in 1787 he moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he studied law, married Jane Byrd Page, and started a family.
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Olympian Wilma Rudolph Visits the White House
Wilma Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. As a child, she suffered from several serious illnesses, including pneumonia, polio, and scarlet fever. She wore a leg brace until the age of nine. After recovering the use of her leg, Rudolph turned to sports. She excelled at basketball in high school, earning an All-American designation and setting a
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"Running Against the World"
The 1936 Summer Olympics were unlike any other. In Berlin, Germany, under the shadow of Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, an African-American track and field athlete rose to stardom: Jesse Owens.1 Owens’s record-breaking athleticism carried him from the cotton fields of the South to the White House and made him one of the most famous athletes in American history. Jame
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Enslaved Labor and the Construction of the U.S. Capitol
“Would it be superstitious to presume, that the Sovereign Father of all nations, permitted the perpetration of this apparently execrable transaction, as a fiery, though salutary signal of his displeasure at the conduct of his Columbian children, in erecting and idolizing this… temple of freedom, and at the same time oppressing with the yoke of captivity and toilsome bondage, twelve or f
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The First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C.
The First Baptist Church of the City of Washington D.C. was founded in 1802, shortly after Washington D.C. became the federal seat of government.1 For Baptists in early America, religious liberty was a pillar of the faith, but one that did not fully extend to enslaved persons and free Black people within Baptist congregations. As a church just north
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Paul Cuffe & President James Madison: The Transatlantic Emigration Project & the White House
On May 2, 1812, Captain Paul Cuffe arrived at the White House for a meeting with President James Madison.1 The internationally renowned sea captain and entrepreneurial maritime trader planned to discuss two pressing issues with the president: the transatlantic emigration of African Americans to Africa, and the growing hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. Cuffe not only became “one of th