University of the District of Columbia
Student Center Ballroom, 4200 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington DC 20008

Author Jesse J. Holland will speak at the University of the District of Columbia, on Thursday October 20, 2016 at 6pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Jesse J. Holland’s The Invisibles is the first book to tell the story of the executive mansion’s most unexpected residents: the African American slaves who lived with the US presidents who owned them. The Invisibles chronicles the African American presence inside the White House from its beginnings in 1782 until 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted slaves their freedom. During these years, slaves were the only African Americans to whom the most powerful men in the United States were exposed on a daily and familiar basis. By hearing about these often-intimate relationships, listeners will better understand some of the views that various presidents held about class and race in American society and how these slaves contributed not only to the lives and comforts of the presidents they served but to America as a whole.

Jesse J. Holland is the Race, Ethnicity & Demographics reporter for The Associated Press, and responsible for coverage and analysis of this nation’s minority and ethnic groups for the world’s largest news organization.  A former Supreme Court, White House and Congressional reporter, Jesse has been named one of TheRoot.com 100 Most Influential African Americans and is the youngest person on the University of Mississippi’s Top 50 Journalism Graduates. He will serve as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Ethics in Journalism at the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2016. Jesse is also the author of 2007’s Black Men Built The Capitol: Discovering African American History In and Around Washington, D.C. and the upcoming Star Wars young adult book, Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Finn’s Story.