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How Early White House Conversations Influenced Civil Rights

Shortly before 5 p.m. on April 11, 1968, several congressional and African-American leaders gathered in the East Room of the White House to witness the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (commonly known as the Fair Housing Act). Before signing the measure, President Lyndon B. Johnson took the stage and delivered brief remarks to commemorate the occasion. Among his comments, he

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Andrew Jackson Goes to the Beach

Okay – so he didn’t exactly go to the beach but he did spend four long vacations on the Virginia coast indulging in sea air, privacy, and “bathing.” Close enough! In 1829, during the first summer of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, he went on an inspection tour of several military projects around Norfolk, Virginia. One of the places he visited was a man-made

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White House Pigeons

As any visitor to Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. will tell you, pigeons are a universal feature of the environmental landscape surrounding the White House. One reporter even designated the park across from the White House “almost as famous an abode for pigeons as St. Mark’s Square, Venice.” For many years, however, “carrier” pigeons transported messages for many miles, in