About this Event
The Ficklin family name has been associated with White House service for nearly a century. In fact, so many members of the Ficklin family once worked at the White House that the Washington Post quoted a butler who observed, “A Ficklin here, a Ficklin there, I see Ficklins everywhere.”
The story begins with the author's grandfather James Strother Ficklin, who was born enslaved in about 1854 and conscripted to serve as a water boy to Confederate army troops quartering in rural Virginia. Following Emancipation, he worked as a houseman, laborer, and in coal mining before purchasing 37 acres of land in Virginia where he farmed, produced molasses, and raised ten children.
John Woodson Ficklin, the seventh of those ten children, and the author's father, moved to Washington, D.C., as a teenager and like many African American men at the time, found work as a butler in the city. His older brothers Sam and Charles began working as butlers at the White House during the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency and he soon joined them. Over the course of forty-three years in service at the White House, John Woodson Ficklin was promoted to the esteemed positions of head butler and maître d’ hotel.
In the book, John W. Ficklin recounts his realization of the prominence of his father’s job as he watched his dad serve as an usher at the funeral for President John F. Kennedy. Growing up, he worked part-time for his father, as staff at White House State Dinners and social events. During one summer picnic on the South Lawn, while transporting ice to the service tents he was delighted to hear President Jimmy Carter sing “Salt Peanuts” with Dizzy Gillespie. The author continued his service with an extended summer job as a messenger where, among other tasks, he transported documents from the Nixon White House to the Watergate Special Prosecutor’s office. Eventually John went on to become the longest serving member of the National Security staff, faithfully serving seven U.S. presidents. Until his retirement in 2015, there had been a Ficklin in the White House since 1939, serving with every president from FDR to Obama. In just two generations, the Ficklins rose from slavery to the White House doors and beyond.
From the author's unique perspective, An Unusual Path tells the story of three Ficklin men against a backdrop of American history. In her foreword for the book, Ambassador Susan E. Rice, notes “The Ficklin’s ultimate legacy may be to remind us all of what America is capable of at its best…This family didn’t just bear witness to history, their story is history.”
About the Author
The Honorable John Wrory Ficklin’s career spanned seven administrations, culminating in President Barack Obama appointing him to the position of special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs.
About the White House Historical Association
In 1962, when First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave Americans a televised tour of the White House interiors she announced, “We are going to do a book.” This promise became a guidebook, The White House:An Historic Guide, the Association’s first project. Now, more than sixty years later, the Association has matured into a nationally recognized independent publisher with more than one hundred titles produced to date as well as a quarterly magazine now in its seventy-fifth issue. Our books serve as a tangible representation of the Association’s mission to enhance understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the historic White House, as they have from the start. From general interest to highly focused, our titles cover a broad range of subjects related to the history of the President’s House and its historic neighborhood, from its architecture, gardens, fine and decorative arts, to the presidents and first ladies who lived there over the years, to the stories of those who built and cared for the house, to its global context as the home and office of our nation’s head of state. Our list includes titles that appeal to history buffs and art lovers, connoisseurs and curious amateurs, scholars and tourists, adults and children. To learn more about the White House Historical Association, please visit www.whitehousehistory.org.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The People’s House: A White House Experience, 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, United States
USD 0.00
