using the depriest tea incident in the classroom

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

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

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

Mr. and Mrs. DePriest

oOscar Stanton DePriest

o First black Congressmen since 1901

o Republicano Chicago Districto Wife: Jessie

DePriest

The tradition of tea

Traditional social event

Congressmen’s wives invited by First Lady

Political in nature

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

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

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

Anti-Lou Letters/Press Pro-Lou Letters/Press

Compare/Contrast Writing and Analysis

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.

Southern Democrat Opposition

Northern Republican Support

Understanding Race and Politics

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.

Elizabeth DinschelEducation SpecialistNational Archives and Records Administration, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum(319) 643-6031Elizabeth.Dinschel@nara.gov