Fight w Descendants of The Enslaved, Employee Firings At Montpelier, Home of J. Madison, 4th US Pres

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Wed Apr 20, 2022, 05:52 PM - Edit history (1)

- Montpelier Estate, Orange, Virginia.
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- 'Montpelier's fight with descendants of the enslaved brings employee firings,' NPR, April 20, 2022. - Ed.

The historic Montpelier, home of the 4th U.S. president, James Madison, and birthplace of the Constitution, is in turmoil this week as a result of a bitter debate between administrators of the estate and descendants of those the American statesman enslaved there. At least 4 employees of the Montpelier Foundation have been fired and several others disciplined. At issue are seats on the board that runs the foundation. The board has for years been predominantly white. The Montpelier Descendants Committee (MDC), which represents some 300 descendants of enslaved people, had sought to change that.

Last year, the 2 parties struck a power-sharing agreement that would see half of the seats on the board be selected by the MDC. But last month, the foundation board abruptly voted to change its bylaws, effectively stripping nominating power from the Black descendants, and in the MDC's eyes, robbing Black people of the opportunity to have equal buy-in on managing the grounds that their ancestors for generations toiled & maintained. The foundation says it wants to expand the number of nominees beyond the MDC's choices. "Basically what they're afraid of is the MDC taking over the board," says Elizabeth Chew, one of the fired employees. Chew had been executive vice president and chief curator of Montpelier. She was out of the office visiting family when she got the email- to her personal email address- notifying her that she had been terminated.

Montpelier employees, as well as some board members, describe an environment rife with racism. White board members, they say, do not want to see power shared with descendants of the Black people who literally built the estate. One board member, multiple people allege, described a Black man as having intimidated him with a "Frederick Douglass stare." The fear of a takeover, Chew says with incredulity, was rooted in what the board saw as "angry Black folks." Two calls to board chairman Gene Hickok & a call & a text to Montpelier President & CEO Roy Young went unanswered by the time of publication.

- A Longtime Dispute: The discord at Montpelier is years in the making. The Montpelier Foundation Tuesday defended its decision to fire at least 4 employees & discipline additional staff, citing monthslong performance issues. "The Montpelier Descendants Committee (MDC), through its leadership, has worked relentlessly for months to create dissension & division among the staff of James Madison's Montpelier. Some members of the Montpelier staff have, as a result, spoken disparagingly, even hatefully, of the volunteer Board that governs this historic American treasure," wrote Hickok...
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/20/1093673939/montpeliers-fight-with-descendants-of-the-enslaved-brings-employee-firings
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- Enslaved Community, Montpelier, https://www.montpelier.org/learn/tag/enslaved-community



- "A Slave In The White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons," by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor. (Montpelier Shop).

- THE LIFE OF PAUL JENNINGS: An enslaved African American who served the Madison family both at Montpelier & in Wash., D.C., made the incredible journey from slavery to freedom to memoirist. His brief volume, entitled A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison, is considered the first memoir about life at the White House. It’s also a rich firsthand account of the relationship between slave & slaveholder—even more valuable for its insight into a system that was at odds with its perpetrators’ values. Jennings was born in 1799 at Montpelier to an enslaved woman about whom we know very little except that she was granddaughter of a Native American. His father was Benjamin Jennings, a white British merchant...https://www.montpelier.org/learn/paul-jennings

* MORE about Montpelier, https://www.montpelier.org/ Montpelier Museum Shop, https://shop.montpelier.org/shop/books-office/6

* THE PEARL, Largest Attempted Slave Escape In US History, 1848, Wash., DC: Paul Jennings
https://www.democraticunderground.com/11632374

- Montpelier (Orange, Virginia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montpelier_(Orange,_Virginia)



- Hunt Races at Montpelier.

[LakeArenal]

1. Explain to me why Black People shouldn't be angry?????

Especially about this type of stuff.