The Black History of the White House: A Conversation with Author Clarence Lusane

[Note: this program was pre-empted by breaking news from NPR on former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation] It’s easy to overlook the fact that the White House, a popular symbol of civil liberty, has its own dirty history. But the very structure was built with forced African-American labor — and one quarter of U.S. presidents owned slaves. Clarence Lusane, associate professor of political science at American University, joins us to talk about his corrective rendering of the White House, which is both a history of the place and of the progress and struggles of African-Americans.