One of the surprises in Deborah Davis’s Guest of Honor (Atria Books), about a 1901 White House dinner that set the nation abuzz because it was the first time a black man—Booker T. Washington—dined with a sitting president—Theodore Roosevelt—appears in the introduction.
Davis, of Montclair, explains that the genesis of the book goes back to the 2008 presidential election, though it wasn’t Barack Obama who inspired her to re-examine the historic event. It was John McCain, who mentioned the momentous meal in his concession speech.
“I was intrigued because I consider such unexplored moments in history my specialty,” writes the author. In Guest of Honor, Davis’s intrigue leads from one well-researched revelation to another. The dinner set off a racial firestorm. Lynchings ensued, and the desk drawer of Washington’s secretary “overflowed with threats from people who believed that Booker T. deserved to die because he dared to dine at the wrong table.”
Born a slave, Washington rose to head Tuskegee Institute and is best remembered for his autobiography Up From Slavery. Roosevelt’s bio is much different: Davis paints him as an impulsive rich man made vice president in hopes that his forward-thinking views would be stifled by the position’s limited authority; he ascended to the presidency as a result of the assassination of William McKinley.
Washington proved a key consultant on race relations for the President. However, the furor over the dinner eventually created a gulf between them. Unsettled times led to an unsettling reality, though the dinner did yield a few valuable developments. It inspired ragtime master Scott Joplin’s little-known opera, also titled Guest of Honor, for example, as well as this highly readable and intelligent book.