there's a granted and i was going to say helen taft, you know, helen taft everybody says she got her husband to the white house because he was in line for an appointment to the supreme court under theodore roosevelt and helen taft got wind of that and she went over and met the president and talk to him and after she did the president talk to her husband and said i can see why an appointment to the supreme court is not what you want at this time. and then of course taft went ahead and won the presidency and the story is that helen rushed down from her seat in the in the capital where he was being inaugurated and gotten the car because before then the assistant always rode back to the white house with the new president and she made sure she was sitting beside her husband and rode back and then when they they got there they walked in and this is perhaps apocryphal but she said, okay i made you president now, let's see what you'll do with it. so, yes, unfortunately, you know, she had a stroke a couple months later and so much of the joy that she would have found in the white house. unfor

. >> julia grant and helen taft. intact, everyone says she got her husband to the white house because he was in line for an appointment to the supreme court under theodore roosevelt and helen tuft got wind of that, she went over to meet the president and talk to him, after she, did the president went to him and said i can see why a appointment to the supreme court is not what you want at this time. then of course tuft went on to win the presidency. the story is helen rushed down from her seat in the capital, where he was being inaugurated, and got into the car because before then, the systems always went back to the white house with the president and she made sure she was sitting next to her president. indwhen they got there, they wak there and this is perhaps apocryphal and she said, i mean the president, let's see what you do with that. unfortunately she had a stroke a couple months later and so much of the jewish would have found in the white house and fortunately she did not find, but yes, actually now that i thi

for the better part of a quarter of a century until she was able to enlist the aid of first lady helen taft who agreed and helped her advance the the cause the first cherry trees were planted in 1912 a gift from the people of tokyo. fortunately, there's little concrete information known about the fate of the original trees planted in 1912. the arborist and the landscape designers who planted the trees didn't leave behind a record of where they had planted them subsequent planning over the years became mixed in with the originals. and today it's not known how many if any of the regional tre. granted but very near the japanese stone lantern are a handful of very old very gnarled cherry trees which could in fact date to that original 1912 shipment. the average life of a cherry tree. however is only about 40 or 50 years. so out of the original shipment there wouldn't be more than a handful that are still living. each year the national park service has to replace approximately 90 trees around the tidal basin in east potomac park and on the grounds of the washington monument. cherry, blossomsome

another for early or first lady was heli, helen nelly taft who developed an appreciation for cultural and racial diversity when her husband was serving as president of the commission to establish a civil government in the philippines, and then he served as governor general of the philippines. she used social events, as i said, they can have rhetorical power to chip away at the color line that was left over from the previous military government by inviting filipinos along with americans and europeans to social events that she and and her husband hosted. she was described by one biographer is being egalitarian and she made sure that african-american is an immigrants were invited to the white house events, and she expanded employment opportunities for african americans on the white house staff. she believed that education was a great equalizer, and she supported kindergarten classes for black children. well, she's best known for bringing the cherry trees to washington her lesser known civil rights actions were impactful beyond just on the district's boundaries. ellen wilson woodrow wilso