Segregation and a Controversial White House Tea Party: A Distance Learning Program

Registration is now open for two programs on March 13th: “Segregation and a Controversial Tea Party at the White House” at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. CST.

In 1929, First Lady Lou Hoover invited Jessie DePriest, wife of African American Congressmen Oscar DePriest, to a White House tea party. The political and social ramifications were intense — some letters even called for the lynching and impeachment of the First Lady. This program will discuss segregation and the political ramifications of the DePriest tea.

The program will draw from Herbert and Lou Hoover’s papers, letters from the public, oral history interviews, memoirs from White House staff, newspapers, and political cartoons. All primary source materials, summative assessments, and lesson plans are available upon request.

Portrait of Lou Henry Hoover, ca. 1929, photo-print by Berton Crandall Palo, Alto, California. Courtesy of the Hoover Library.
Portrait of Lou Henry Hoover, ca. 1929, photo-print by Berton Crandall Palo, Alto, California. Courtesy of the Hoover Library.

“Segregation and a Controversial Tea Party at the White House” is presented by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and The White House Historical Association as part of the Presidential Primary Sources Project (PPSP).

The Presidential Primary Sources Project offers a series of free, 50-minute, interactive videoconferencing programs to students all over the world. PPSP is a collaboration between the National Park Service, U.S. Presidential Libraries and Museums, other cultural and historic organizations, and the Internet2 community.

Students will interact live with presidential historians at museums and Presidential Libraries and park rangers at our National Presidential Historic Sites to explore historical themes and events. This year’s PPSP theme is “Human and Civil Rights.” In addition to live interactive discussion, primary source documents will be used extensively during the presentations. Each program will also be live streamed (no registration required) and archived for on demand viewing.

You and your students can watch archived past programs, including “The Roosevelts and Race in the 1930s and 40s,” presented by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, and “President Truman and Civil Rights,” from the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.”

See the list of presentations by our Presidential Libraries on www.archives.gov/education/distance-learning and the full presentation schedule from PPSP.

You can learn more about PPSP at http://k20.internet2.edu/presidents or on the PPSP Facebook page.

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