I'm reading a book about the rise of Teddy Roosevelt. Not because I'm interested in him specifically. I just enjoy reading these types of books from time to time.
I forget the exact year this incident happened, but it would have been late 1800's.
Roosevelt is in Chicago and iirc he was involved in discussions for who would be the next Republican nomination for Governor.
Fairly late in the discussions, Roosevelt suggests nominating a black man. Why? Because he's black, obviously.
It got me thinking, who was the first DEI hire in the United States? I'm sure this wasn't the first. (although the black guy didn't get the nomination in this case)
Recently, I watched the History channel documentary (maybe docu-drama is a better description) about T. Roosevelt. They said he invited Booker T. Washington to dinner once, which was scandalous, but he never went further than that.
Last summer, I read "Up from Slavery" by Washington, and I thought in it, he only said he met with McKinley, not Roosevelt. Which maybe I misremembered. Did Washington and Roosevelt do more together?
I know he had dinner with Roosevelt and McKinley visited his school. Up From Slavery is a good book I thought. His last one was called My Larger Education which was really good