A Free Man of Color and His Hotel Race, Reconstruction, and the Role of the Federal Government

"Many people know that the terms of the so-called Compromise of 1877 were hammered out at the Wormley Hotel in Washington, D. C.; fewer know that its proprietor, James Wormley, was African American. That is only one of the surprises awaiting readers of Carol Gelderman s new book, which sheds much-needed light on the experiences of the national capital s black population during the nineteenth century." Brooks D. Simpson, ASU Foundation Professor of History, Arizona State University, and author of "The Reconstruction Presidents"