On December 16, 1898 – 127 years ago today – Republican President William McKinley visited Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute at the request of founder Booker T. Washington.

The president arrived in Tuskegee aboard special trains from Atlanta with his family, members of his cabinet, and U.S. Army General Joseph Wheeler, an Alabamian who had previously served as a general in the Confederate Army.

Tuskegee Institute received the president along with Gov. Joseph Johnston, the entire Alabama Legislature, and a crowd of more than 6,000.

The president toured the school grounds and witnessed a parade before speaking in the school’s chapel. During his speech, McKinley noted the enduring legacy of the college and the progress it had made in sowing the “seeds of good citizenship.”

This story originally appeared in The Art of Alabama Politics, an outlet dedicated to the the wild, weird, and wonderful history of Alabama politics.