Who Was the First Non-White Elected as US President or Vice-President?

It was not Barack Obama, but who was it? It was Charles Curtis (Kaw) who was Vice President of the U.S. from 1928-1932 with Hoover as President (they ran again in 1932 but lost to FDR). We learned much about Curtis on our visit to the Charles Curtis House Museum in Topeka. His mother was part Kaw Indian and his father was a white anti-slavery activist and descendent of English settlers. His mother died in Topeka when he was three and his grandparents raised him on the Kaw Reservation near Council Grove, Kansas. After the Kaw were attacked by a band of Cherokee, Charles went back to the Topeka area to live with his paternal grandparents. He attended High School there but left after one year because of the racism he experienced, and worked at a number of jobs including livery driver and in a law office. He studied law on his own, passed the Kansas Bar and became a lawyer at 21. At 24 he was elected County Prosecutor; at 32 he was elected to US House of Representatives, serving 16 years, and in 1907 at the age of 47 he was elected to the US Senate from Kansas and eventually chosen as Majority Leader. His opponents derisively called him “the Injun.” In Congress he was a supporter of women’s rights but, sadly, not always Indian rights (he believed in the importance of Indian assimilation, allotments, and supported business interests seeking profit from Indian land and minerals). He grew to question the allotment policy and even assimilation. He came to believe that the government should just let the Indians alone. In 1928 he ran for President, did not get the nomination, but was chosen as Hoover’s running mate and served 4 years as Vice-President of the United States (but did not get along with Hoover).

Charles Curtis house in Topeka

The Charles Curtis House Museum is a story in itself.  It was his Topeka home for many years but by the 1990s after numerous owners (Curtis died in 1937) it was decayed and close to being demolished. A working class couple who lived on a farm 20 miles out of Topeka (she worked for a printing company, he was a Union pipefitter for 50 years) stepped in, purchased the building and lovingly restored it. They acquired a huge trove of Curtis memorabilia over the next 20 years for display there.  Today it is gorgeous and Nova Cottrell is thrilled to tell the story of Curtis while showing the house to anyone who visits.  Topeka recently erected a monument honoring Curtis which we visited; we also viewed his burial plot.

A Kansa Native American with bow and arrow pointed at the North Star sits atop the State Capital Dome in Topeka.

Charles Curtis Monument in Downtown Topeka

Curtis Head Stone in Topeka Cemetery