Many years later, in 1929, First Lady Lou Hoover, wife of president Herbert Hoover, invited Congressional wife Jessie DePriest to join her for tea. She was a black woman married to Oscar DePriest, the first African American to be elected to Congress from Illinois. People were also upset about this. The poem appeared again because of this incident. Southern newspapers and racist critics reacted with their normal outrage and letters of protest. The White House spokesman pointed out the president and his wife were simply doing their constitutional duties. As examples President Grover Cleveland had hosted Frederick Douglass and his wife On five separate occasions president Woodrow Wilson met at the White House with the black minister from Haiti, Solon Menos. 