Nov 10, 2008 7:00 pm US/Pacific
Willie Brown Recalls Overnight White House Visit
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
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Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
CBS
Barack Obama's election is only the latest chapter in the long history of African-Americans and the White House. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was a guest of President Bill Clinton in 1998.
"I have have been one of fewer than 100 African-Americans in the history of this country that have ever spent overnight in the white house," Brown said.
Brown stayed in the opulent Lincoln bedroom. He said it's important that a black man will be the host rather than the guest.
"For African-Americans it becomes the symbol of ultimate acceptance democratically speaking," Brown said.
Crews of free and enslaved blacks started the construction of the White House in 1792. Eight years later, John and Abigail Adams were the first to move in.
But it wasn't until 1801, when Thomas Jefferson became president that he brought slaves with him.
For years that was the only black presence in the White House, as staff.
Brown recalled his stay: "It's an interesting place because you have servants up the ying-yang, they're everywhere."
President Abraham Lincoln was criticized when, in 1863, he invited Frederick Douglass to the White House to talk about emancipation.
Some were dismayed when, in 1864, Lincoln hosted Sojourner Truth.
Booker T. Washington's visit to a presidential dinner brought scorn to host Theodore Roosevelt.
When Oscar De Priest was elected to congress, First Lady Lou Hoover caused a firestorm by hosting a tea for De Priest's wife. The De Priests were black.
Segregationists continued to complain in 1939, when opera singer Marian Anderson performed at the White House at the request of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Another important date was in 1973, when Sammy Davis, Jr. is believed to have became the first black person to spend the night as a guest of Richard Nixon. Fast-forward to Monday which represent yet another milestone in the history of blacks and the White House.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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