Marker acknowledges the role of slavery in building White House
WASHINGTON — The unveiling ceremony on the north side of Lafayette Square on Wednesday wasn’t large and it didn’t last long, but history was made. Or rather, history was recognized. Finally.
Fifty or so people gathered in the late-morning swelter to watch as Stewart D. McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, and John Stanwich, the National Park Service’s liaison to the White House, removed black cloth draping three historic markers on the north side of the square.
Each marker told a different story about the park, but it was the first marker, the one that acknowledged the role slavery played in building the nearby White House, that felt monumental. To date there had been no other formal recognition, not a plaque or a memorial, noting that hundreds of enslaved people helped build and later maintain and staff the White House.
This new marker tells some of that story, noting that beginning in 1792, enslaved African Americans were hired out by their owners to work alongside English, Scottish and Irish wage laborers and craftsmen. During the eight-year project, hundreds of free and enslaved African Americans contributed to every aspect of the construction.
It concludes: “The use of enslaved labor to build the home of the president of the United States illuminates our country’s conflicted relationship with the institution of slavery and the ideals of freedom and equality promised in America’s founding documents.”
The impetus for the marker came from a comment made by former first ladyMichelle Obama at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, according to Mr. McLaurin.
“She said, ‘I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves,’ ” Mr. McLaurin recalled in an interview Tuesday. “And the next day we were inundated online with questions from people wanting information on the backstory of what she said and people who wanted to learn more.”
Mr. McLaurin, who is white, helped launch a research effort to find out as much as possible about the role slavery played in the White House. Early last year, the historical association launched “Slavery in the President’s Neighborhood,” an online exhibit that examines and traces the lives of enslaved people at America’s most famous address.
To date it has chronicled information about more than 300 enslaved men, women and children who can be linked to the building and staffing at the White House beginning in 1792 and lasting through the first half of the 19th century. They served in households of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor.
The two other markers unveiled Wednesday address the importance of Lafayette Square itself in the nation’s history and how that came to be.
One points to the significant role that former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy played in preserving the square and preventing the destruction of some of the historic buildings that surround it. Ms. Kennedy also helped found the White House Historical Association as a private organization that partnered with the Park Service to finance restoration and improvements to the White House and acquire art and furniture for its stately rooms.
The final marker explains how the park has been the locus of protests over the past century, beginning with protests by female suffragists in 1917, after which a number of the participants were fined or arrested, and continuing to the present.
Protests are a regular feature in the square, from smaller daily demonstrations to much larger gatherings favoring or opposing presidents or their policies.