MD - Where's Jefferson?

[David Morris]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37241-2002May5.html

CHARLOTTESVILLE, May 5 -- A group representing Thomas Jefferson's documented 
descendants voted overwhelmingly today to bar the kin of slave Sally Hemings 
from joining the family organization, ending three years of rancorous and 
racially charged debate.

Members of the Monticello Association -- a group composed of more than 700 
lineal descendants of Jefferson and his wife, Martha -- also rejected a 
proposal that they form an organization to honor the slaves and others who 
worked at Monticello in Jefferson's time.

"Our intent was to kill this forever so it doesn't keep coming up again," 
said John H. Works Jr., a former president of the Monticello Association and 
one of the key lobbyists against the Hemings descendants' inclusion. "This 
should do it."

The 74 to 6 vote against changing the association's membership criteria 
marked a long-awaited climax to the drama. The controversy has roiled the 
group since 1998, when a DNA analysis showed a link between a male line of 
the Jefferson family and some descendants of Hemings.




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