Trouble in Lafayette Square by Gil Klein

Trouble in Lafayette Square by Gil Klein

Author Gil Klein reveals the fascinating role of Lafayette Square in the nation's history.

Lafayette Square near the White House is surrounded by landmarks and steeped in a fascinating history of rebellion. A congressman shot and killed the son of Francis Scott Key in broad daylight on the square and got away with it. On the night Lincoln was assassinated, a co-conspirator forced his way into Secretary of State William Seward's house and nearly killed him. The women's suffrage movement created the White House protest that goes on to this day. Puerto Rican nationalists tried to force their way into the Blair House to assassinate President Truman, who was living there.

Since coming to Washington from the Tampa Tribune in 1985 to write for the Media General News Service, Gil Klein has worked as a national reporter and journalism professor. He served as president of the National Press Club in 1994 and contributed to two previous Club histories. He is the author of Trouble in Lafayette Square: Assassination, Protest, and Murder at the White House and the coordinator of the University of Oklahoma's Washington journalism department and Gaylord News Bureau.