Using the DePriest Tea Incident
in the Classroom
Elizabeth Dinschel, Education Specialist
at the National Archives and Records
Administration, Herbert Hoover
Presidential Library and Museum
What was the “incident?”
•
Context, 1929
Post-Reconstruction
Pre-Civil Rights
Movement
•
•
•
White House is
segregated
•
•
•
•
Jim Crow and Plessy v.
Ferguson are the law
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
Robert R. Morton visits
White House one month
before DePriest
o
o
First Lady Lou Henry
Hoover
Quaker influence
African-American
friends
Traditional entertainer
Leadership philosophies
of Lou
Silent activism
o
o
o
o
o
o
Paid African-American
girl’s college tuition
Lou Hoover
oOscar Stanton
DePriest
o
o
o
o
First black
Congressmen
since 1901
Republican
Chicago District
Wife: Jessie
DePriest
Mr. and Mrs. 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 desegregation of White House
Political parties
Compare/Contrast Writing and Analysis
Anti-Lou Letters/Press
Pro-Lou Letters/Press
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.
Understanding Race and Politics
Southern Democrat
Opposition
Northern Republican
Support
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 Dinschel
Education Specialist
National Archives and Records Administration, Herbert
Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
(319) 643-6031
Elizabeth.Dinschel@nara.gov