Black History Month is a perfect time to reflect on the lasting contributions that so many Black Americans, famous and anonymous, have made to White House history. Black Americans helped raise its walls. For centuries they’ve done much of the work that makes the White House run.
And in the face of arduous legal, social and political barriers, a multitude of Black Americans – from influential visitors to White House staff and trusted advisers – have opened presidential minds, challenged our leaders to deliver on America’s promises and made history themselves.
A free Black man, Benjamin Banneker, helped map the boundaries of America’s new capital city (and urged future President Thomas Jefferson to add Black Americans to his calls for liberty). For eight years, more than 200 enslaved people were forced to quarry stone, cut timber, make bricks and raise walls and roofs to help build the White House.
In the decades that followed, free and enslaved Black people were key to the functioning of the White House as it rose to a center of national power. They cleaned the residences, cooked meals, tended horses, and sewed, mended and washed clothes.
They were trusted with the most personal of services like helping presidents and first ladies with dressing and grooming, nursing White House children, greeting guests and waiting on first families as they ate.
White House history:How early presidents failed enslaved people
During the War of 1812, as the British approached to burn the White House, an enslaved man named Paul Jennings helped move George Washington’s portrait to safety. Jennings later helped 77 people in a daring escape that fueled the growing anti-slavery movement in the United States.
Black Americans influenced events during the Civil War. Frederick........