Author Discusses His New Book: The Black History of the White House
Protection of the institution of slavery was the price the South demanded for joining the United States in the revolt against Britain, and the North was also “absolutely invested in the slave system,” says Dr. Clarence Lusane. Dr. Lusane’s new book, from City Lights Publishers, details George Washington’s desperate efforts to gain the return of his prized personal slaves who successfully fled the presidential residence in Philadelphia.
During the Civil War, for the first time, Frederick Douglass and others negotiated with an American president on the political status and fate of Blacks. Yet, four decades later, Booker T. Washington’s sit-down dinner with President Teddy Roosevelt resulted in such an explosion of racist anger, the next day Roosevelt formally named the presidential mansion the “White House” in order to mollify white opinion.
During FDR’s term, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt largely eliminated segregation at the White House by firing all of the white household staff and keeping the Blacks. In the early Sixties, the political tradition of regularly hosting delegations of Blacks at the White House was established. With President Obama’s family ensconced in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Black image has been enhanced. However, “in many ways there has been less of an ability to address issues of race” under Obama, “as Black working and poor people are erased out of public policy discussion,” says Dr. Lusane.
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The author wants us to deepen our analysis of how power moves through the world to constrain Black life, and how queer Black people resist these constraints.
Millions of Americans face eviction in a “completely predictable and entirely preventable” crisis as the CDC’s moratorium is set to expire on New Year’s Eve.
Eighty-three percent of blue-collar temp assignments are staffed by non-white workers in Illinois, a state where non-white workers are just 35 percent of the workforce.
Both capitalist parties, and members of the black misleadership class, intentionally play the game of racial politics in order to obscure and ignore issues of class and poverty.
Biden, et al are planning to take us back to a romanticized Clinton and Obama eras.
