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Upstairs at the White House with Tricia Nixon
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Upstairs at the White House with Tricia Nixon, a historic White House television event with the now iconic CBS television news show, 60 Minutes. While Harry Truman, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson had previously conducted recorded tours of the White House, this was the first time that cameras were allowed upstairs for a te
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An Early Black Family's Life in Lafayette Park
As we consider life in the President’s Neighborhood, the unusual story of the Wormley Hotel and its Black founder, James Wormley, should come to mind. It was one of the preeminent private hotels in Washington, D.C. and the establishment of choice for foreign dignitaries, politicians, businessmen, and the wealthy in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Stories ab
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Ulysses S. Grant's Cabinet
On March 4, 1869, Ulysses S. Grant took the oath of office and became the eighteenth President of the United States. His inauguration was a joyful occasion—many Americans celebrated Grant as the military hero that defeated the Confederacy. After Andrew Johnson’s dismal administration, Americans welcomed Grant’s election as an opportunity to restore the glory and honor of the presidency.The Gr
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Vietnam War Protests at the White House
On November 1, 1963, a group of military officials overthrew the South Vietnamese government and assassinated President Ngo Dinh Diem after he refused to resign—all with the tacit approval of the John F. Kennedy administration.1 While U.S. involvement in Vietnam dated back to the Dwight Eisenhower administration, the escalation of the war during the 1960s and 1970s dominated national politics, ta
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Mr. President, Can You Hear Us?
In the center of Washington, D.C, there is a seven-acre public park enclosed by H Street NW (north), Madison Place (east), Pennsylvania Avenue (south), and Jackson Place (west). Sometimes referred to as Lafayette Park or Lafayette Square (as a neighborhood), the area was named after the famous French hero, the Marquis de Lafayette. The park features a statue of
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The American Colonization Society
In the late eighteenth century, the original thirteen colonies dissolved and formed the United States. In 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia to craft a new federal government for the nation. The new Constitution protected the institution of slavery to fulfill an immediate and important need for a labor force, and preserved the hierarchy that kept white, male
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Washington, D.C.'s "Contraband" Camps
On April 16, 1862, Congress passed the Compensated Emancipation Act, ending slavery in the District of Columbia and delivering long-awaited freedom to more than 3,000 men, women, and children.1 America’s capital city became a beacon of liberty for enslaved individuals in bordering slave states like Maryland and Virginia, many of whom ran away and crossed into the District to pursue their own li
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The White House and Reconstruction
January 1, 1863 was a watershed moment in American history. That morning, President Abraham Lincoln hosted the annual New Year’s Day reception at the White House, spending several hours in the Blue Room shaking hands with hundreds of citizens. In the early afternoon, Lincoln returned to his office upstairs on the Second Floor. Secretary of State William Seward and his son, Fr
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Diversity in White House Art: Greta Kempton
Greta Kempton (born Martha Greta Kempton) was born in 1903 in Vienna, Austria. She discovered painting early on, completing her first painting at the age of nine—a portrait of her sleeping governess. Kempton studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and the Vienna National Academy of Design before emigrating to the United States in 1926 with her young daughter, Daisy. In
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Diversity in White House Art: Henry Ossawa Tanner
Henry Ossawa Tanner was one of the most distinguished Black artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Despite his immense success, Tanner’s life story reveals the challenges faced by many Black artists. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 21, 1859. His mother, Sarah Tanner, was a formerly enslaved woman who escaped to freedom on the Underground Railroad, while his fa
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Diversity in White House Art: Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe’s captivating flower paintings and Southwestern landscapes have made her one of the world’s most recognizable modern artists. O’Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887, and raised in Wisconsin. Throughout her childhood, she took art lessons at home with her siblings and later attended lessons at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Virgi
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Diversity in White House Art: Simmie Knox
On June 14, 2004, the official portraits of President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton were unveiled in the East Room of the White House. These paintings made history as the first official White House portraits created by a Black artist, Simmie Knox.