Credit: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Michelle Obama’s speech during the first day of the Democratic National Convention was generally lauded.

One sentence in particular garnered more attention, and controversy, than the rest:

That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.

The mention of slavery was a stark reminder for those who may have forgotten the White House’s disturbing history or for those whose associate the iconic home with freedom and not the misery created in its absence.

Clarence Lusane, author of “The Black History of the White House,” isn’t one of those people.

The chair of Howard University’s Political Science Department, Lusane has done extensive research on the enslaved people who built the structure and later lived among 10 of the United […]