Editing Booker T. Washington (section)

===Dinner at the White House===
{{Main|Booker T. Washington dinner at the White House}}

[[File:Booker Washington and Theodore Roosevelt at Tuskegie Institute.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Booker Washington and Theodore Roosevelt at the Tuskegee Institute, 1905]]

In October 1901, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] invited Washington to dine with him and his family at the White House. Although Republican presidents had met privately with black leaders, this was the first highly publicized social occasion when an African American was invited there on equal terms by the president. Democratic Party politicians from the South, including future governor of Mississippi [[James K. Vardaman]] and Senator [[Benjamin Tillman]] of South Carolina, indulged in racist personal attacks when they learned of the invitation. Both used the derogatory term for African Americans in their statements.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grantham |first=Dewey W. |date=1958 |title=Dinner at the White House: Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, and the South |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=112–130 |issn=0040-3261 |jstor=2621372}}</ref><ref>Deborah Davis, ''Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner that Shocked a Nation'' (Simon and Schuster, 2012).</ref> The meeting was also condemned by the Democratic perennial presidential candidate [[William Jennings Bryan]], who argued that "the more advanced race never has consented, and probably never will consent, to be dominated by the less advanced" despite him having previously praised Washington.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Willard H. |date=April 1969 |title=William Jennings Bryan and Racism |url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2716689 |journal=[[The Journal of Negro History]] |language=en |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=127–149 |doi=10.2307/2716689 |jstor=2716689 |issn=0022-2992 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |via=University of Chicago Press Journals}}</ref>

Vardaman described the White House as "so saturated with the odor of the nigger that the rats have taken refuge in the stable,"<ref>{{cite news |first1=DeWayne |last1=Wickham |title=Book fails to strip meaning of 'N' word |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnists/wickham/2002-02-15-wickham.htm |work=[[USA Today]] |date=February 14, 2002 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |archive-date=January 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106024422/http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnists/wickham/2002-02-15-wickham.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2maGdg-nHCIC&pg=PA362 | title= Theodore Roosevelt: A Life | first1 = Nathan | last1 = Miller | publisher= [[HarperCollins]]| isbn= 978-0-688-13220-0| year= 1993}}</ref> and declared, "I am just as much opposed to Booker T. Washington as a voter as I am to the cocoanut-headed, chocolate-colored typical little coon who blacks my shoes every morning. Neither is fit to perform the supreme function of citizenship."<ref>{{Citation | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VgMRHB3dvNIC&q=Rubio+coon&pg=PA71 | title = Books | isbn = 978-1-60473-031-9 | last1 = Rubio | first1 = Philip F. | date = 2009 | publisher = Univ. Press of Mississippi }}.</ref> Tillman said, "The action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that nigger will necessitate our killing a thousand niggers in the South before they will learn their place again."<ref name="kennedy">{{cite book |last1= Kennedy |first1= Randall |title= Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |chapter= The Protean N-Word |chapter-url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm |publisher= Pantheon |isbn= 978-0-375-42172-3 |year= 2002 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/niggerstrangecar00kenn }}</ref>

[[Ladislaus Hengelmüller von Hengervár]], the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] ambassador to the United States, who was visiting the White House on the same day, said he found a [[rabbit's foot]] in Washington's coat pocket when he mistakenly put on the coat.  ''[[The Washington Post]]'' described it as "the left hind foot of a graveyard rabbit, killed in the dark of the moon".<ref name=BTWP>{{Citation | url = http://www.historycooperative.org/btw/Vol.8/html/437.html | title = Booker T. Washington Papers | access-date = September 21, 2009 | volume = 8 | number = 437 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100224003633/http://www.historycooperative.org/btw/Vol.8/html/437.html | archive-date = February 24, 2010 }}.</ref> The ''[[Detroit Journal]]'' quipped the next day, "The Austrian ambassador may have made off with Booker T. Washington's coat at the White House, but he'd have a bad time trying to fill his shoes."<ref name = BTWP /><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tN1isaLBtbIC&pg=PA437| title = ''Detroit Journal'', November 14, 1905, BTW Papers, vol. 8, p. 437, n.1 (University of Illinois Press, 1979)| date = 1979| publisher = University of Illinois Press| isbn = 978-0252007286}}</ref>