TJC Mention in NBC News: University of Virginia Suspends Tours That Had Come Under Fire
Excerpt
The Jefferson Council, a conservative alumni group, had been calling for an end or change to the tour program, insisting that volunteers had been wrongly besmirching the legacy of UVA's founder.
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Council president Thomas Neale, a 1974 UVA grad, said his group helped push Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, to place 13 appointees on the university's 17-member governing board of trustees, which led to this action.
"So yeah, we raised the issue and now that they have 13 (appointees) — and not all of the Youngkin appointees are homogenous, some are fairly moderate — but all of them looked at this and said this has to change," Neale said.
Neale insisted his group doesn't want a whitewashing of Jefferson's status as a slaveowner, but a greater contextualization of America's third president and Declaration of Independence author.
He insisted that it should be taught that Jefferson signed into law, in 1807, the prohibition against the importation of slaves. The prohibition was poorly enforced, doing little to end the institution of slavery until the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
"He's (Jefferson) quoted by every country in the modern era having started a democracy," Neale said. "There are many commendable things about him. Of course, mention he was a slave owner. That's not hidden."
David K. Li is a veteran newspaper reporter and joined NBC News in late 2018 after stints at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Oakland Tribune and New York Post.