The People's House: The Power and Presence of African Americans in the White House
Michelle D. Commander · Kathleen M. Kendrick
Jan 2027 · Sold by Penguin
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528
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About this ebook
A new anthology celebrating the African American voices that influenced and shaped the history of the White House
A Penguin Classic
The People’s House is an anthology comprised primarily of first-person accounts, from the eighteenth century to the present, detailing the Black experience in the White House — in turn illustrating how African Americans have influenced the presidency and policy over America’s 250-year history. The collection’s diversity of perspectives — from dressmakers and domestic staff members to abolitionists and civil rights activists, as well as cabinet members, candidates, and elected officials — charts not only a history of African Americans in the most recognizable U.S. institution, but how African Americans have used their power and presence in the White House to urge the nation toward its democratic ideals. Through the words of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm, Colin M. Powell, Barack Obama, and dozens of other figures, both prominent and lesser-known, this anthology offers an expansive and intimate view of the White House as a key site in the struggle for Black freedom and equal citizenship. Each entry is accompanied by insight from editors Michelle D. Commander and Kathleen M. Kendrick, providing biographical information and historical context to help readers further understand how African Americans have shaped the story and meaning of the People’s House.
Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
A Penguin Classic
The People’s House is an anthology comprised primarily of first-person accounts, from the eighteenth century to the present, detailing the Black experience in the White House — in turn illustrating how African Americans have influenced the presidency and policy over America’s 250-year history. The collection’s diversity of perspectives — from dressmakers and domestic staff members to abolitionists and civil rights activists, as well as cabinet members, candidates, and elected officials — charts not only a history of African Americans in the most recognizable U.S. institution, but how African Americans have used their power and presence in the White House to urge the nation toward its democratic ideals. Through the words of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm, Colin M. Powell, Barack Obama, and dozens of other figures, both prominent and lesser-known, this anthology offers an expansive and intimate view of the White House as a key site in the struggle for Black freedom and equal citizenship. Each entry is accompanied by insight from editors Michelle D. Commander and Kathleen M. Kendrick, providing biographical information and historical context to help readers further understand how African Americans have shaped the story and meaning of the People’s House.
Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
A new anthology celebrating the African American voices that influenced and shaped the history of the White House
A Penguin Classic
The People’s House is an anthology comprised primarily of first-person accounts, from the eighteenth century to the present, detailing the Black experience in the ...
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About the author
Michelle D. Commander, Ph.D., is Deputy Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is an interdisciplinary humanist whose career spans education/academia, libraries and archives, and some of the nation’s most significant cultural and arts institutions. A curator and scholar of Black geographies, cultural memory, and the speculative arts, Commander is the author of Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative Returns and the Black Fantastic (2017) and Avidly Reads: Passages (2021). She is the editor of the Penguin Classics anthology Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition (2021), and the NMAAHC publications Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience (2024) and Revelation: A Journey into Abstraction (2026). A prior Ford Foundation fellow and Fulbright scholar (Ghana), Commander is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society.
Kathleen M. Kendrick is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including Make Good the Promises, a history of Reconstruction and its legacies, and Making a Way Out of No Way, a collection of stories highlighting African American resilience. She is also the author of the Official Guide to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016) and the co‑author of Legacies: Collecting America’s History at the Smithsonian (2001).
Kathleen M. Kendrick is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including Make Good the Promises, a history of Reconstruction and its legacies, and Making a Way Out of No Way, a collection of stories highlighting African American resilience. She is also the author of the Official Guide to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016) and the co‑author of Legacies: Collecting America’s History at the Smithsonian (2001).
Michelle D. Commander, Ph.D., is Deputy Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is an interdisciplinary humanist whose career spans education/academia, libraries and archives, and some of the nation’s most significant cultural and arts institutio...
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