This Day in History: 10 October 2020
10 October 1957
63 years ago, today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologised to the Ghanaian Finance Minister, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, inviting him to breakfast at the White House. He had been refused service at a restaurant in Dover, Delaware. It was one of the first of many such incidents where African diplomats were confronted with racial segregation in the United States. Even though the matter may appear rather small compared to other events during the Cold War, the racial slights to African and Asian diplomats during the 1950s and 60s were of high concern to US officials. During those decades, the Soviet Union and the United States were competing for the hearts and favour of millions of people in Asia and Africa.
Racial discrimination in America, especially when it was directed at representatives from those continents, was coined as the nation's 'Achilles' heel'. During the early 1960s, matters continued to deteriorate as many diplomats from new nations in Africa and Asia faced housing discrimination in Washington, DC. A series of confrontations in restaurants, barbershops and other businesses in and around the area made it clear that American civil rights had become an international issue.
Want to find out more about President Eisenhower's apology to Gbedemah? Click here for more information, or here for a video of more about the apology.
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