Booker T. Washington, a Black author and educator whose autobiography, Up From Slavery, was widely popular at the time, was invited to a White House dinner. While attendees remembered the evening as simple and cordial, newspapers remarked that the president had crossed a line. It was the first time a Black American was formally entertained at the White House. 

President Roosevelt found the outrage inexplicable. Washington was a widely respected voice for Black Americans; Roosevelt considered him “a man for whom I have the highest regard.” Despite this, it would be decades before another Black person was invited to dine at the White House.