Booker T. Washington Dines at the White House

President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House, making Washington the first African American to be officially received as a dinner guest by a sitting U.S. president. The event sparked furious backlash from white Southerners but demonstrated Washington's influence as the most prominent Black political adviser of the era. It marked a significant, if contested, moment in Black access to presidential power.