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CNN Sunday Morning
Jefferson-Hemings Relationship Leaves Ambiguous Lineage
Aired May 06, 2001 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Almost all families value their heritage and many devote a lot of time and resources to charting their family tree. But for many African-American families, slavery robbed them of a clear and unambiguous lineage. Perhaps one of the most well known are the decedents of Sally Hemings, a slave who many believe bore by several children by American founding father Thomas Jefferson.
Byron Woodson Sr. is a descendent of Sally Hemings and he has researched his family history in depth. His conclusions are the subject of his book, "A President In The Family." And joining us also on the phone is James Prescott, President of the Monticello Association, the official organization of Jefferson descendants. And we welcome you both to the program.
JAMES PRESCOTT, PRESIDENT, MONTICELLO ASSOCIATION: Good morning, Miles. Thank you for having me.
O'BRIEN: Good morning. Mr. Woodson, let me begin with you. What compelled you to write the book? You were told of the family secret, as it is called many years ago. What made you get to the point where you wanted to distill al this information in book form?
BYRON WOODSON SR., SALLY HEMINGS DESCENDANT: Well, my mother was a schoolteacher. And she retired in 1972 from a Washington D.C. school system and devoted almost seven years of her life documenting our family's genealogy. We had a short oral history that was handed down from generation to generation. But my mother went through census records, birth records -- went to county courthouses in Ohio and Virginia and devoted a great deal of time and energy to documenting our family genealogy.
In 1994, my mother passed away. And I sort of stepped into her shoes. And we've even uncovered -- my wife and I uncovered new information in Thomas Jefferson papers that points to the same history.
O'BRIEN: Is there any doubt in your mind that Thomas Jefferson is one of your ancestors?
WOODSON: Absolutely no doubt whatsoever.
O'BRIEN: All right. Mr. Prescott, as the keeper of the flame as it were for the Monticello Group, the descendants of the Jefferson family, has this been a difficult issue to contend with over the years?
PRESCOTT: Well, of course, it has. By the way, I can't hear Mr. Woodson. So I don't know what his comments were.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, let me just -- I'll just pose you a direct question and I'm not -- I apologize for putting you at a disadvantage in that first part of it. But let me just ask you the question of whether these cases -- and there have been several claims made of a connection to the third President -- if these cases have caused some consternation among certain family members within the Jefferson clan and their descendants. And what the family is doing about it now?
PRESCOTT: Well, we are a group of about 700 people -- members of our Association. The primary purpose in the Association is the care and upkeep of the family graveyard at Monticello where Mr. Jefferson happens to be buried.
A group of 700 people, you've got 700 different opinions ranging from one extreme to the other. Some people for inclusion, some people for exclusive and most of us, I think, are somewhere in between.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Prescott, is this a -- and its root somewhat of a racial issue?
PRESCOTT: Oh, heavens, no. The question is descendancy. Two years ago we formed a Membership Advisory Committee. And its charter is to help us decide who is or who is not a descendent of Thomas Jefferson. That Committee should complete its work this fall.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Woodson, you as representative of the group who claims lineage of Sally Hemings, do you feel that you have been treated properly by the Monticello group?
WOODSON: Yes. I mean we've been -- one of our cousins, Lucien Trustadt (ph) went on the "Oprah" show in 1998 and invited his African-American cousins to the Monticello Association meeting in '99. And we've -- I've attended in the last two years. This is the third year. And we're being able to meet our cousins. They're getting to know us; we're getting to know them.
I think the -- there may be some bumps in the road. But prior to that, the Jeffersonian historians have definitely not handled this controversy in an honest and appropriate way. But the Monticello Association of the family is yet a different institution and a different group of people...
O'BRIEN: Why don't you -- if you explain that distinction for our viewers -- why the Monticello Association has perhaps been more receptive to the claims than some historians?
WOODSON: Well, it's just family and they knew each other as descendants of Martha Wayles Jefferson and we -- and the Sally Hemings descendants. Woodson's starting having reunions in 1978. We came together and reconnected and then we've reconnected with the descendants of Esten (ph) Hemings and Madison Hemings. And now we're all coming together to get know each other.
The Monticello Association never had to deal with issue and make a decision before. So they had no predisposition on it.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Prescott, where does it go from here then? And help viewers understand what the stakes are here if a person is determined beyond a shadow of a doubt to be of Jefferson's lineage? What does that bestow upon him or her?
PRESCOTT: Well, a proven descendent of Thomas Jefferson is eligible for membership in our Association. And they're also eligible for burial in the family graveyard. That being a very separate and distinct issue. And in fact, there's some legal aspects then because of the title -- restrictions on the title of the graveyard regarding burial.
That becomes a more complex legal issue under the laws of the State of Virginia. But if one is a proven descendant, then those two things can happen. They can become a member of the Association and they are entitled to burial in the graveyard.
O'BRIEN: And as to where it's headed from here, this decision is eminent?
PRESCOTT: Well, I don't know whether I'd say eminent. Our Membership Advisory Committee had hoped to have a report by this May. They've held up because there has been another study released recently in April and we just now had access to the final version of that.
And so, they've got to study that. And I'm sure they're very interested in studying Mr. Woodson's book. And hopefully, that'll all be completed by this fall.
O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much to both of you gentlemen. James Prescott and Byron Woodson and Mr. Woodson's book, "President In The Family" is worth study by all of us who are interested in American history. Thank you both for being with us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
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