In spring 1864, President Abraham Lincoln invited a guest to one of his private rooms in the White House — the room he often napped and read his Bible in.
His visitor was Caroline Johnson, a Black woman from Philadelphia who was known for making intricate wax fruit. While the nation was embroiled in the Civil War, the pair sat and discussed the fruit Johnson had gifted Lincoln and his wife.
“It shows in a very practical way, a breaking down of a color line in the White House that had been very strong before the war, and unfortunately, would return after the war,” said Jonathan W. White, an American studies professor at Christopher Newport University. “For this period of time, there’s an egalitarianism there that was unusual in the 19th century.”
