Free The Black History of the White House by Clarence Lusane

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    During the time I was writing this book, Washington, D.C., had one of its worst snowstorms in history. As I waited in an extraordinarily long line at the grocery store, thinking of all the editing and writing I still had to do, a neighbor, who had switched to a much shorter line, beckoned me over. In a relatively short time I had paid for my groceries and was on my way. Her act of kindness likely saved me two hours and allowed me to get back to my desk to keep working. Ultimately, writing is an act of individual discipline, but it takes place in the social world. My neighbor, whom I had never met before and whose name I never knew, and many other unnamed individuals played small and large roles in making this work possible.
    As usual, James Steele has always been the brother I never had biologically. He strongly recommended that I take on this project from the very beginning and has always been there whenever I needed him for wisdom, comment, or just a general take on the state of the world (or the NBA). I also want to give a shout to Maurice Jackson, who has kept his eye on this project and sent timely references and notes that fill the seams and crevices of this work. I also thank Clayton LeBouef who provided an important lead in my research on music at the White House.
    I have also had the good fortune to be able to count on Darius and Debbie Mans for their helpful insights, caipirinhas, and sage analysis of black politics, U.S. history, and globalrelations. Debbie was also one of the outside readers I trusted to give me real feedback on the final draft. Others who took this grand task were Wilmer Leon, Keisha Williams, Sylvia Hill, Geoffrey Jacques, and the aforementioned James Steele. Also, I want to express great appreciation to Danny Glover, David Theo Goldberg, Barbara Ransby, and the White House Historical Association.
    Greg Ruggiero has more often than not been my repressed brain, creative spirit, and alternate consciousness while writing this book. He has been my indispensable editor. Engaged and passionate, he turned curves into sharp corners, replaced fictions with facts, identified and strengthened weaknesses, and helped to generate reflections. Thank you, Greg.
    City Lights Books has been great to work with. Taking a comprehensive approach, the publisher created a website, set up speaking engagements, and made every other effort to ensure the success of this project. Demanding when necessary and supportive all the way, City Lights continues to produce books that advance our public discourse and intellectual life. My deep thanks to Stacey and the entire City Lights staff.
    Finally, I want to once again acknowledge the support of my family. From D.C. to Detroit to Brazil to New Jersey to Alabama, my family has always been my encouraging and supportive foundation, the embodiment of all that matters. Above all, Zezeh and Ellington provide inexhaustible happiness and pleasure in my daily (non-writing) life.

INTRODUCTION
Black People, White Houses
    African Americans and the Promise of the White House
    I, too, am America —Langston Hughes, from his poem “I, Too, Sing America”
    More than one in four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery. These presidents bought, sold, bred and enslaved black people for profit. Of the twelve presidents who were enslavers, more than half kept people in bondage at the White House. For this reason there is little doubt that the first person of African descent to enter the White House—or the presidential homes used in New York (1788–1790) and Philadelphia (1790–1800) before construction of the White House was complete—was an enslaved person. 1 That person’s name and history are lost to obscurity and the tragic anonymity of slavery, which only underscores the jubilation expressed by tens of millions of African Americans—and perhaps billions of other people around the world—220 years later on November