Kenneth T. Walsh - Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House

Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...69

FAMILY OF FREEDOM

ALSO BY KENNETH T. WALSH

Prisoners of the White House: The Isolation of Americas Presidents and the Crisis of Leadership

Feeding the Beast: The White House versus the Press

Ronald Reagan: Biography

Air Force One: A History of the Presidents and Their Planes

From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats

Family of Freedom

PRESIDENTS AND AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE WHITE HOUSE

BY
KENNETH T. WALSH

First published 2014

by Paradigm Publishers

Published 2016

by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2014, Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walsh, Kenneth T.
Family of freedom: presidents and African Americans in the White House /
Kenneth T. Walsh.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61205-000-3 (library ebook)
1. PresidentsRelations with African Americans. 2. PresidentsUnited States
Attitudes. 3. PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. 4. African Americans
Government relations. 5. African AmericansPolitics and government.
6. RacismPolitical aspectsUnited StatesHistory. 7. PresidentsUnited
StatesStaffHistory. I. Title.
E176.472.A34W35 2011
305.800973dc22 2010033695

Designed and Typeset by Straight Creek Bookmakers.

ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-833-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-834-8 (pbk)

For Barclay

CONTENTS

On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, a landmark in Americas racial history and one of the most important signs of racial progress since the beginning of the Republic. For the past fifty years, Americans of goodwill have celebrated that moment, when the country granted African Americans and other groups fundamental rights they had been denied for so long by forbidding discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin.

The signing of the law was important in another way. It showed that a determined president in Washington allied with a determined leader at the grass roots could overcome enormous obstacles and accomplish great things. This was true in the case of Johnson, probably the best legislator ever elected to the White House, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the iconic leader of the American civil rights movement. Neither could have made the progress that was achieved without the other. They realized this, and privately coordinated their efforts, with the politician concentrating on Washingtons corridors of power and the tribune of the people mobilizing Americans in the streets. It was a very effective combination.

The story of the turbulent JohnsonKing relationship is recounted in this book, which is being reissued in paperback by Paradigm Publishers to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The occasion is a reminder of how much has changed in the United States on racial issues over the years. Not only has Barack Obama been elected the first African American president for two terms, but demographic research shows a fundamental social transformation is taking place. The Pew Research Center finds that by 2060, only 43 percent of the U.S. population will be white. In 1960, the U.S. population was 85 percent white. Rates of intermarriage and interracial births are increasing, suggesting that perhaps the racial divide is gradually being bridged, once and for all.

This book has two goalsto examine the racial attitudes and policies of Americas presidents and to explain how those attitudes and policies intertwined with the presidents day-to-day relationships with African Americans. In the process, I hope to illuminate not only the tortured history of how our leaders dealt with race but also the little-understood role that blacks have played in running the White House and, in many cases, helping the presidents to govern.

The narrative is rich with fascinating characters, such as Barack Obama, the first African American president, and other iconic chief executives such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan, and many African Americans who served or advised them, including Ona Judge, Sally Hemings, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Keckley, William Slade, Mary McLeod Bethune, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice.

In assessing the history of the presidents and blacks in the White House, we can learn much about ourselves as Americans. Through that prism, we can trace our capacity for tolerance, our ability to deal with moral issues such as Americas original sin of slavery, and our 200-year-old struggle to heed what Lincoln so memorably called the better angels of our nature.

First and foremost, my heartfelt thanks go to my wife, Barclay Walsh. I wouldnt have written this book without her encouragement, and I couldnt have written it without her participation. She was my researcher and all-around sounding board, and her role was invaluable, as was her constant support. I dedicate this book to her.

I also want to thank President Barack Obama for his time, interest, and insight. My interview with him was an important part of this project.

And Id like to express my appreciation to former Presidents George W. Bush and George H. W. Bush, each of whom took the time to respond to my written questions via e-mail and provide thoughtful answers.

Former General Colin Powell was extremely helpful in talking to me about his experiences at the highest reaches of government.

Also providing invaluable help were David Axelrod, Ross Baker, Cornell Belcher, Doug Brinkley, Bob Dallek, Frank Donatelli, Matt Dowd, Ken Duberstein, Marlin Fitzwater, Al From, Bill Galston, Geoff Garin, Robert Gibbs, Ed Gillespie, Ed Goeas, Stan Greenberg, Valerie Jarrett, Frank Luntz, Kevin Madden, Thurgood Marshall Jr., Will Marshall, Mike McCurry, Bill McInturff, Mark Penn, Dan Pfeiffer, Roman Popadiuk, Michael Steele, Sean Walsh, Brad Woodhouse, Julian Zelizer, and the staffs at various presidential libraries. In addition, I found some sources particularly helpful, including many articles in the African American press over the years and the books of former White House staff members Lillian Rogers Parks, Elizabeth Keckley, and Preston Bruce.

Jillian Manus, my agent, was a believer in this project from the beginning.

And thanks to the creative team at Paradigm Publishers, especially Jennifer Knerr, Laura Esterman, Sharon Daugherty, and Jessica Priest.

I hope this book illuminates a key part of American history that has been neglected for too long, the close relationships between our presidents and the African Americans who have been an integral part of the White House from the beginning.

Kenneth T. Walsh
Bethesda, Maryland

Next page

1234567...69

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House»

Look at similar books to Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Koritha Mitchell

From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture

Clarence Lusane

The Black History of the White House

Thomas C. Holt

Children of Fire: A History of African Americans

Claudine Burnett

African Americans in Long Beach and Southern California: a History

Barbara M. Linde

African Americans in Political Office: From the Civil War to the White House

E. Frederic Morrow

Black Man in the White House

Theresa A. Hammond

A White-Collar Profession: African American Certified Public Accountants since 1921

Mary Main

African Americans in Law and Politics

Jonathan W. White

A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House

Thomas Dresser

African Americans on Marthas Vineyard: from enslavement to presidential visit

Yacovone

Freedoms journey: African American voices of the Civil War

Gates Henry Louis

The African Americans: many rivers to cross

Discussion, reviews of the book Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.