African Americans at White House Receptions During Lincoln’s Administration. Part I

In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt famously sparked an outcry when he invited a black man, Booker T. Washington, to a White House dinner. More than a generation earlier, Abraham Lincoln less famously created a similar outcry when he greeted African Americans during Executive Mansion receptions, at least five of which were attended by blacks. Historians writing about Lincoln and race have focused on policies and pronouncements but have paid little attention to his interaction with African Americans at those receptions. One scholar, Nell Irvin Painter, asserted erroneously: Throughout Lincoln's two administrations, such receptions remained off limits to blacks."4 Professor Painter may have been misled by Frederick Douglass's account of his experiences on March 4, 1865, when he tried to attend the reception following Lincoln's inauguration. Elizabeth Keckly, a black modiste who served as Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante, recalled that Douglass "was very proud of the manner in which Mr. Lincoln received him.