From David Halberstam's book, The Fifties, I find the incredible story of Frederic Morrow, "the first black special assistant ever to work in the White House." A few highlights:

In 1952 he had been asked to be the liaison between the black community and the campaign of Dwight Eisenhower. Morrow had some doubts about the job, but had accepted it, only to endure a series of endless humiliations, some large and some small, during the campaign. … In San Francisco, hotel securty men, watching him leave for dinner with a group of Republican co-workers, decided that Morrow had snuck a white woman into his room, and literally smashed open his door at 3 A.M. to uncover the evidence—only to find him sleeping alone.

… He stayed with the campaign because he believed in the historic process itself. He was the grandson of people who had fled slavery and someone had to carry this special burden, someone had to be first. For some reason, he decided, he was chosen. In addition, he liked the candidate himself. That was not to say that he had a lot of contact with Eisenhower. His role was not so much to offer advice—for this was a campaign largely run by men who did not want advice from a black man on behalf of other blacks—but rather it was to be visible at certain times and invisible at others.

… After Ike was elected, Morrow believed he had been promised a job in the White House. He duly resigned from CBS, was given a warm farewell party, and moved to Washington. He was stunned by what he found in Washington. … White cab drivers would not pick up a black man. … Blacks could not eat in white restaurants or stay at white hotels. There was virtually no integrated housing, as he soon discovered from a prolonged search for a decent apartment. Even when the resources of the White House were summoned on his behalf, little turned up. Finally it was decided to pressure the owner of a big residential hotel… The owner said that yes, he would offer Morrow an apartment but Morrow would have to use the freight elevator to get to his room and he could not use the main lobby, nor could he eat in the building's restaurant.

… Another thing he found, to his shock, was that the promised job … did not exist. There were powerful men in the new administration who were sharply opposed to the idea of a black presidential assistant.

… It was, Morrow later said, one of the most humiliating moments in his life. … Eventually, he took a minor position as an adviser in the Commerce Department; he was told there was still a possibility that something might open up in the White House. It did—two years later. In the summer of 1955 he was given a job in the Executive Office Building. Almost from the first, he found himself walking on eggshells.

… Morrow was willing to accept the personal indignities, for he believed he was opening one more door. … What was most difficult for him was his lack of access to the President, as an ever widening gulf separated the President from the dramatic changes taking place in civil rights.

… When it came time to leave the White House, Morrow did not, as most White House assistants do, have an easy time finding job. … He was sent by a colleague to see a Washington lawyer … The lawyer wanted to know how much Morrow made. At that time his salary was around ten thousand dollars a year. The idea, Morrow later reflected, that a black could make more than fifty dollars a week seemed to surprise and offend the lawyer. … Perhaps selling used cars?