The Sheraton Palace Hotel
This photo is of the entrance to the Sheraton Palace Hotel, which is famous because President Warren G. Harding died here.
On August 2, 1923 President Harding died of a heart attack here after touring the U.S. and Canada. Harding was, by the way, the first American President to visit the Dominion of Canada.
The corruption issues of Harding’s administration are well known. However, two important facts are not:
- Harding was the first President to travel to the Southern States where he gave a speech in which he told his audiences it was time to give the Negro his civil rights. Harding’s predecessor, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, who was from Virginia, had segregated Washington D. C. during his presidency.
- As a young boy, Warren Harding was often accused of having Negro (black) ancestors. He replied: “I can’t help it if one of my ancestors jumped over the back fence.”
Contrary to the political fiction promoted by Barrack Obama political acolytes, Obama is not the first presidential candidate to have black ancestry or heritage.
Also, Obama is not the first political candidate to claim black ancestry (however small) or heritage:
In 1968 Channing E. Philips headed Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in D.C. Philips led the delegation from the District of Columbia to the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Members of the District's Delegation were originally pledged to Robert F. Kennedy. Following Senator Kennedy's death, the delegation voted to nominate Rev. Phillips as a favorite son instead. He received 68 votes (behind Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern).
By some accounts, this makes Rev. Phillips the first black person ever so nominated at a major party convention. He was without question the first African-American to receive votes for the presidential nomination at a Democratic National Convention.