 Until 1965, the “Solid South” was a one-party system under the white Democrats.Excepting the previously noted historic Unionist strongholds the Democratic Party nomination was tantamount to election for state and local office.In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington, president of the Tuskegee Institute, to dine at the White House, making him the first African American to attend an official dinner there.