The People's House: African American Influence and Presence in the White House
Michelle D. Commander · Kathleen M. Kendrick
Jun 2026 · Penguin
Ebook
496
Pages
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infoThis book will become available on June 9, 2026. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
For America’s 250th birthday, an anthology celebrating the African American voices that influenced and shaped the history of the White House.
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 abolition and civil rights activists, as well as cabinet members, elected officials, and First Family members — charts not only a history of African Americans in the most recognizable U.S. institution, but how African Americans have shaped the history of the White House and America as a whole. Featuring writing by Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm, Colin M. Powell, Barack Obama, as well as dozens of other influential Black figures, this anthology is a thorough, personable history of the White House, from its construction through slave labor to the election of the first Black President in U.S. history. Each entry is accompanied by insight from series editors Michelle D. Commander and Kathleen M. Kendrick, contextualizing the circumstances in which each first-person account was written and the impact the individual had on the White House.
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 abolition and civil rights activists, as well as cabinet members, elected officials, and First Family members — charts not only a history of African Americans in the most recognizable U.S. institution, but how African Americans have shaped the history of the White House and America as a whole. Featuring writing by Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm, Colin M. Powell, Barack Obama, as well as dozens of other influential Black figures, this anthology is a thorough, personable history of the White House, from its construction through slave labor to the election of the first Black President in U.S. history. Each entry is accompanied by insight from series editors Michelle D. Commander and Kathleen M. Kendrick, contextualizing the circumstances in which each first-person account was written and the impact the individual had on the White House.
About the author
Michelle D. Commander, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. A scholar of slavery and memory, Black geographies and mobility, and the speculative arts, Commander is the author of Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative Returns and the Black Fantastic and Avidly Reads: Passages and editor of the Penguin Classics anthology Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition. Recently, she served as the Consulting Curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. 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 Taking the Stage, an exhibition dedicated to the history of African Americans in theater, film, and television, and co-curated Making a Way Out of No Way, a collection of stories of African American resilience. She is also the author of the Official Guide to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the co-author of Smithsonian Treasures of American History and Legacies: Collecting America’s History at the Smithsonian.
Kathleen M. Kendrick is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She has curated Taking the Stage, an exhibition dedicated to the history of African Americans in theater, film, and television, and co-curated Making a Way Out of No Way, a collection of stories of African American resilience. She is also the author of the Official Guide to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the co-author of Smithsonian Treasures of American History and Legacies: Collecting America’s History at the Smithsonian.
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