margaret hoover, whose great-grandmother was lou henry hoover. and clifton truman daniel whose grandmother was bess truman. and of course everybody knows that susan's mom was betty ford. each of them served in those unique and very interesting times. i want to start with you margaret, because yours is the longest span between great-grandmother and yourself yet you have a lot of interesting insights about a woman who served in what was a very difficult presidency. margaret: she did indeed. thank you, first, to susan for inviting us here tonight. thank you, rick, for hosting and to the foundation for hosting us all here. it's really a privilege to be here in grand rapids and see the museum and library for the first time. we have done this a little in the past together clifton , susan, and i. so forgive us, we may jest a little in between the three of us. to lou henry hoover, my great-grandmother who i never knew, was born in 1874 in waterloo, iowa, was raised in california, and died in the waldorf historia where she died with my great grandfather i

to me lou hoover was born in 1874 in waterloo iowa raised in california and died where she lived withy great-grandfather. she died 20 years before he did. she was in the whitehouse during a really difficult time. her legacy as the first lady is little known because her papers were not opened until 1984 20 years after hoover's death. and she was lost in the shadow of the great depression and hoover's reputation were the worst calamity the country went thew. what i learned about my great-grandmother is sharing her legacy. she was a pioneering woman much like bess and betty ford she broke the morals of her time. hopefully i will have time to tell you more about how her time in the whitehouse and i don't want to go on and on but how the time in her life was such an extroidinarily hard to pigeon type and created a model that elnore roosevelt first. lou hoover was an activist first lady doing things that had never been done and that was consistent with how she lived her life to that point and after the presidency as well. >> i have to make a disclaimer before going to cliffton. the first pr

i think my mother is a cross between bess truman and lou hoover. she was an activist when she wanted to be. and some of you heard the story of her going to a palm reader, way before she married by dad or right after and they said you will meet kings and queens. to my mother that meant she was going to dance, because we all know that dance was her love, and she danced with martha graham, she would get to dance in front of queens and kings. little did she know she would meet them at state dinners and host them at the whitehouse. take a chance at changing woman's health care which she truly did. the survival rate is 90% from breast cancer and when diagnosed it was 70%. she made a huge change in that. and her drug and alcohol. she was a very private person as well. and wanted her private time and there were many many days she would sit on the couch and say i don't want to get back and shake another hand or be that public persona which is more the bess truman in her. she loved it did a great job and she only had two and a half years. i think she would h

. >> what about lou hoover?>> very talented person but reticent to engage with the press and so she doesn't get her story out. >> we have that total weekend set up. >> she wouldn't even agree to do interviews with people to do pieces on her and a female reporter dressed up as a girl scout and crashed a meeting and wrote a story she was mad and would never talk to anybody ever again. >> there was the reason she dressed as a girl scout. lou hoover took on the girl scout as part of her major effort. she was trying to encourage volunteerism. >> it was successful at that. >> there is the photograph, radio broadcast about a girl scout trying to engage more people to get into their communities and help with a lot of trouble going on. you have a question over here? >> there has been this sort of interesting under current fiscal conversation about how ideas of femininity and the role of women in society influence expectations with in face when they become first ladies and that is partly why it seems like a paradigm shift

i think my mother is a cross between bess truman and lou hoover.s an activist when she wanted to be. and some of you heard the story of her going to a palm reader, way before she married by dad or right after and they said you will meet kings and queens. to my mother that meant she was going to dance, because we all know that dance was her love, and she danced with martha graham, she would get to dance in front of queens and kings. little did she know she would meet them at state dinners and host them at the whitehouse. take a chance at changing woman's health care which she truly did. the survival rate is 90% from breast cancer and when diagnosed it was 70%. she made a huge change in that. and her drug and alcohol. she was a very private person as well. and wanted her private time and there were many many days she would sit on the couch and say i don't want to get back and shake another hand or be that public persona which is more the bess truman in her. she loved it did a great job and she only had two and a half years. i think she would have bee

we hear from margaret hoover who reveals her grand grandmother lou hoover was the first first lady to invite an african american woman to tea at the white house. here is a look. >> unless you study lou henry hoover you don't know she was the first first lady ever to invite an african american woman to tea and it caused a tremendous scandal. it was called the depriest incident. she was the wife of congressman depriest who was elected from chicago, an african american couple and it's the tradition the first ladies invited the congressman's wives to tea and they were progressive on this issue they knew it would be a scandal or it could be a scandal so they tried to handle it in the right way but decided to go ahead with it because it would be a good move for the country and it created an outrage, my great grandfather invited her husband to the white house. the first time an african american was invited to the white house publicly. >> join c span this mother's day for programs with the children and grandchildren with the first families paying tribute to the first ladies and life in the ex

here's margaret hoover on her great grandmother first lady lou hoover. >> unless you study lou henry hoover you don't know that she was the first first lady ever to invite an african-american woman to tea. and it caused a tremendous scandal. it was called the depriest incident. she was the wife of congressman depriest who had been elected from chicago, an african-american couple and it was the tradition that first ladies always invited all the members of congress's wives to tea. they were quakers, they were socially progressive in the context of their day on this issue. they knew it would be a scandal or it could be a scandal so they tried to handle it in the right way but decided to go ahead because this would be a good move for the country and it did create an outrage. to make her feel better my great grandfather the next day invited her husband to the white house. so this was the first time an african-american was invited to the white house publicly. teddy roosevelt invited booker t. washington but it was a secret meeting. >> more of this conversation with children and grandchildre

this is lou hoover and first this is a photograph or she hired a well-known photographer frances benjaminnston to photograph her grandchild davy mckee who became a global celebrity, isn't that right carl? she wanted to do it because you wanted to control the public image interests and her family. >> rather than have them exploited. >> did it were? >> not really. [laughter] they were happy to get the pictures and they still exploited them. he was a cartoon character. he was used is like a little mascot for the administrations he would see this little cartoon of this little boy with a big hat of his grandfather. >> another person to try this was edith roosevelt also using the same photographer. there's a family photograph hiring the same photographer benjamin johnson and she also wants to control access to that big tusseling family but at the same time the present love the coverage varied. >> until his daughter alice was photographed picking winnings at the racetrack from a bookie. and then he called the president called the new york herald angrily on the phone and insisted he was jobless s

here's margaret hoover on her grandmother, first lady lou hoover. >>> unless you study lou henry hoover, you don't know that she was the first first lady ever to invite an african-american woman to tea and it caused a tremendous scandal. it was called the depreast amendment. it was the tradition that first ladies invite them to tea. they were kwangquakers and socially progressive. they knew it would be a scandal or it could be a scandal so they tried to handle it in the right way but decided to go ahead with it because this would be a good move for the country and it did create an outrage and to make her feel better my great-grandfather the next day invited her husband to the white house. this was the first time an african-american was invited to the white house publicly. teddy roosevelt had invited booker t. washington but it was a secret meeting. >> more of this conversation with children and grandchildren of first families talking about first ladies sunday at noon eastern time on cspan. >>> jeb bush was one of the featured speakers at the national reviews ideas summit last week. the

we will hear from margaret hoover, who remembers her grandmother lou the first woman to invite an african-american to tea. >> we don't know that she was the first first lady to invite an african-american to tea but cause a tremendous scandal. she was the wife of congressman depriest who have been elected from chicago. it was a tradition that first ladies would invite all the congressman in for tea. in the context of their day, on this issue, they knew it would be a scandal. it could be a scandal, this would be a good move for the country. to make her feel better, they invited her husband to the white house. this was the first time a african american was invited to the white house publicly. teddy roosevelt had secret meetings. >> joint c-span this mother's day, looking at the children and grandchildren of america's first families. that is sunday at noon eastern here on c-span. on thursday, the senate homeland security committee examined terrorist recruiting methods, including social media. as well as suggestions for counseling those suggestions. this hearing is just over two hours. [indiscernible]