A Juneteenth Festival Honors a 19th-Century White House Chef
A woman stands poised at the center of the White House kitchen, an apron tied at her waist, her hair covered with fabric. Sunlight pours in from behind a large stove, casting her shadow across the floor and partially obscuring one side of her face. In her hands, she holds something too small to identify with certainty, perhaps a special dish for the First Family.
Some historians believe the figure in this black-and-white photograph, dated around 1890, is Laura “Dolly” Johnson, an African American White House chef and culinary juggernaut. First hired in 1889 by Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, Johnson served not one, but two administrations, and cooked for four presidents in her lifetime—Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. Back in her home state of Kentucky, she was an intrepid entrepreneur who opened several restaurants, including The White House Café in the city of Lexington, likely one of the first businesses on Main Street to be run by an African American woman.
Johnson was “the most celebrated African American presidential cook of the latter 19th century” and made national headlines in her time, according to culinary historian Adrian Miller. But most Americans today have never heard of her. The Juneteenth Foodways Festival at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis is determined to change that.