Tuskegee University Presidential Visits
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Tuskegee University has been visited by many of the United States Presidents, Vice Presidents and even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, since it's founding in 1881. The first U.S. President to visit was President William McKinley.
1898 December 16 - President William McKinley 1905 October 24 - President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt 1906 March 19 - President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt 1906 April 4 - President William Taft 1939 March 30 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1939 September 14 - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's V.A. Hospital visit 1941 March 22 - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's 2nd Visit 1941 April 19 - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's Chief Anderson Flight 1978 April 13 - President Gerald Ford 1979 April 8 - Vice President Walter Mondale 1981 April 12 - Vice President George Bush, Sr. 1987 May 11 - President Ronald Reagan 1997 May 16 - President William J. Clinton's Syphilis Apology 2006 April 19 - President George W. Bush 
President LBJ mentions President Luther Foster
In transcripts of a January 15, 1965 telephone call between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and United States President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Tuskegee Institute President Dr. Luther Foster is mentioned. In the conversation, Dr. King said increasing the black vote would help build President Johnson's electoral base. In return, President Johnson urged Dr. King to expose the worst incidents of voter oppression. President Johnson told Dr. King: "I think you can contribute a great deal by getting your leaders, and you yourself, taking very simple examples of discrimination... If you can find the worst condition that you run into in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, or South Carolina--well, I think one of the worst I ever heard of was the president of a school at Tuskegee, or head of the Government department there or something, being denied the right to cast a vote. If you just take that one illustration and get it on radio, get it on television, get in the pulpits, get it in the meetings, get it every place you can; pretty soon, the fellow that didn't do anything but drive a tractor will say, "that's not right, that's not fair." And then, that'll help us in what we're going to shove (legislation) through in the end." |
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