According to CNN.com,

Twelve American presidents owned slaves and eight of them, starting with Washington, owned slaves while in office. Almost from the very start, slaves were a common sight in the executive mansion. A list of construction workers building the White House in 1795 includes five slaves – named Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry and Daniel — all put to work as carpenters. Other slaves worked as masons in the government quarries, cutting the stone for early government buildings, including the White House and U.S. Capitol. According to records kept by the White House Historical Association, slaves often worked seven days a week — even in the hot and humid Washington summers.

Michelle Obama learned this year that one of her great-great grandfathers was a slave who worked on a rice plantation in South Carolina. She says finding that part of her past uncovered both shame and pride and what she calls the tangled history of this country.

Though Michelle Obama’s ancestors had to come through the ordeal of slavery, “Her children are sleeping in the room of presidents,” said Brinkley. “It’s a very great and hopeful signal.”

“Tangled history” is quite the understatement.

“Progress” is extraordinary (or extra ordinary), and we know it should not have taken so long. On January 20th, 2009, the Obama family moves in. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” said MLK. Our work begins now.

(Description by Oxford University Press)

So you’ve gotten yourself elected president–now what? Help is here in the form of an imaginary memo from your former professor, who integrates the works of the great thinkers (Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli, etc.) with contemporary scholarship to address the strengths, limitations, and possibilities of presidential leadership. Michael A. Genovese, a highly esteemed presidential scholar, culls numerous nuggets of wisdom about presidential leadership, including past presidents, condensing detailed and academically grounded insights into an engaging and entertaining read. All essential topics are covered, including: presidential character and personality; political institutions and opportunities; power versus leadership; and sources of and limits to presidential power. In-depth coverage of crisis management and wartime decision-making are unique strengths of the book.
Chapters are brief and concise, making Memo to a New President far more interesting than supplements such as case studies or documents. Genovese’s presentation allows readers to identify with the various constraints on America’s chief executive and gives them an opportunity to apply their knowledge and preconceptions (often misconceptions) to the political realities that presidents routinely face. Students are left to grapple with a central question of the book: Is an effective presidency possible without undermining the essence of a democratic republic?

Written before Nov 4, Genovese is picking our brains for the next ten days (in print and in real time). Well, what would/could/should a memo to Mr. Obama look like? The wheels are beginning to turn.

TOP TEN SURVIVAL TIPS FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.

1. WHEN ON THE METRO ESCALATORS, STAND THE RIGHT OR WALK ON YOUR LEFT! (THIS IS THE FIRST AND FOREMOST SURVIVAL RULE; THE OTHER IS DON’T BRING FOOD OR DRINK INTO THE METRO—YOU WILL GET ARRESTED (REALLY!)

its really that serious. WMATA (the DC equivalent of the MTA) is extending service on the big day. while DC still promises to be a mess, visitors can rest assured that they’ll go home with a commemorative metro farecard.

new york city makes us mass transit junkies by default. imagine bloomberg’s smiling face on a metrocard? dear god.

Other than the obvious that makes this inauguration worth celebrating (a person of color elected President in our lifetime? still crazy when I think about it), the outstanding historicity of this election remains the fact that it engaged individuals who were never interested in participating in our psuedo-functional political system ever before.

WHY DO WE CARE? Electoral politics in the US has historically engaged and therefore favored the interests of the privileged across lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability and social positioning. Whether disengaged as a result of force or choice, this election brought out the historically marginalized here in the United States en masse. This election campaign, maybe, just maybe, it is possible that marginalized peoples saw room for their own agency through the campaign and now inauguration of Barack Obama.

Yet we are left with much to be done.

WashDC is preparing, the transition is a’brewing, and folks are packing their bags and making moves towards the District.  There’s much to talk about. As folks on the fringes, what are our greatest concerns? Most importantly, which way forward?

This blog will track the Inauguration in all its glory (mess?), and more importantly engage MHC students in discussion. In following the transition through the first hundred days of Obama’s presidency, our voices will wield strength in space, place and time.