[1] During the Civil War and afterward, Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Cleveland and Coolidge had received black leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth at the White House.
Blacks were relegated to second-class status, and therefore the Hoovers' invitation of Jessie De Priest to the White House along with other wives of congressmen shook the South's social structure.
[3] In his election to the Presidency, Herbert Hoover carried five southern states: Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, which voted for him rather than the Democratic nominee, Alfred E. Smith, a Roman Catholic and Governor of New York.
In an early Southern Strategy, Hoover wanted to build a greater Republican presence in the South among whites; the Democrats were trying to find ways to mobilize their constituencies against him.
[1] In May and June 1929, Republican Congressman George H. Tinkham argued in Congress for enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments with penalties against the racial discrimination under way in the South.
"[4] The Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas legislatures issued condemnations of the White House's June 16 invitation of Jessie De Priest.
Texas's only female state legislator, Margie Neal, said, "Mrs. Hoover has violated the most sacred social custom of the White House, and this should be condemned.
Mississippi's Jackson Daily News declared, "The DePriest incident has placed [the] President and Mrs. Hoover beyond the pale of social recognition for the Southern people.