Using the DePriest Tea Incident in the Classroom
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Transcript of Using the DePriest Tea Incident in the Classroom
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Elizabeth Dinschel , Education Special ist at the National Archives and
Records Administration, Herbert Hoover Presidentia l Library and
Museum
Using the DePriest Tea Incident in the Classroom
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What was the “incident?”
• Context, 1929• Post-Reconstruction• Pre-Civil Rights Movement
• Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson are the law
• White House is segregated• 1901 Booker T.
Washington visit last integrated social event
• The Republican Party is courting white, southern Democrats in 1929
• The Legislator was 100% white from 1901-1929
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What was the “incident?”
o The Hoovers entered the White House in March 1929
o Strong racial equality overtones without spectacle
o Robert R. Morton visits White House one month before DePriest
o First Lady Lou Henry Hoover
o Quaker influenceo African-American
friendso Traditional entertainero Leadership
philosophies of Louo Silent activism
o Paid African-American girl’s college tuition
Lou Hoover
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Mr. and Mrs. DePriest
oOscar Stanton DePriest
o First black Congressmen since 1901
o Republicano Chicago Districto Wife: Jessie
DePriest
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The tradition of tea
Traditional social event
Congressmen’s wives invited by First Lady
Political in nature
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Silently Staging a Social Revolution•May 1929- Lou writes the President’s aide Walter Newton
•Lou has the tea parties in waves, not traditional
•The tea parties numbered close to 200
•The last tea hosted Mrs. DePriest
• Protected Jessie from racist wives
• Prevent ed boycotts and protests
• DePriest received same hospitality as other guests
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The Backlash•Lou remained silent in response to criticism
•“Protection” of white women
•Democrats condemn the actions of the Republican President and his wife
•Oscar DePriest seizes the opportunity to rally support for Hoover from African-Americans and build a Civil Rights agenda.
•Racial politics boil over• Some states pass
resolutions of condemnation
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Why should we use the DePriest Tea Incident in Class?
•Post-Reconstruction racial attitudes
•De-segregation of the White House
•Politicization of race
•Springboard• Role of First Ladies• Work of Oscar DePriest• Chronology of de-
segregation of White House
• Political parties
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Anti-Lou Letters/Press Pro-Lou Letters/Press
Compare/Contrast Writing and Analysis
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Politics•“Southern Strategy”
• “Hoover Democrats”• Economic and Social
policies of the Republican Party
• Hoover won Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia
• First time since Reconstruction
•Issue based Republicans over white supremacy
• DePriest Tea confused the race issue of the Southern Strategy.
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Southern Democrat Opposition
Northern Republican Support
Understanding Race and Politics
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Assessments in Historic Thinking (HATs), using the DePriest Tea Incident for Assessment
Directions: Use the documents and your knowledge of history to answer the questions that follow.
Document A: This letter is from Ben Larrabee of St. Louis and was sent to President Herbert Hoover on June 22, 1929. It is a letter critical of Lou Henry Hoover, First Lady, receiving the a black woman socially at the White House.
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Elizabeth DinschelEducation SpecialistNational Archives and Records Administration, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum(319) [email protected]