Early Saturday morning, several hundred people gathered at Monticello to celebrate Juneteenth, including descendants of the over 400 Black people who were enslaved at the plantation during Thomas Jefferson’s lifetime. The free community event featured insightful and invigorating panel speakers—including renowned filmmaker Ava DuVernay, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, and over a dozen others—as well as poetry, musical performances, and artwork, highlighting the importance of descendant stories and voices.
“We know when it comes to American identity, when we’re thinking of African American stories, that they are essential,” said panelist Melody Barnes, executive director of the Karsh Institute of Democracy and chair of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. “The stories of descendants [tell] us who we are, what we have done, and they answer questions like ‘Who is an American citizen?’”
Multiple speakers reflected on the months-long controversy surrounding Montpelier and its actions taken against descendant leadership. In March, the Montpelier Foundation board reversed its previous decision to give the Montpelier Descendants Committee the right to recommend at least half the board members, but—after facing significant public backlash—the board voted in 11 new members recommended by the committee in May.
“[The board] lied, they cheated, and presumed that they could get away with the performative tokenizing,” said Michael Blakey, founding director of the Institute for Historical Biology and a professor at William & Mary. “[The MDC] continued to say no to that, and say yes to equality. This is a problem everywhere.”
Speakers also stressed the importance of appointing descendants to positions of power, and enabling them to lead research and preservation efforts at historical sites, backed by ample financial support.
“The descendant community is based on descendants of people who were enslaved that can be traced, but it’s also about social descendants. People who are still in the area…[and] people who feel a spiritual connection to the place,” added genealogist Hannah Scruggs, who previously worked on the Descendants’ Project at Montpelier. “The next part of the movement around descendants is to make the tent bigger… Family lines existed across plantation sites.”
After reading an original poem honoring her ancestors, former Freedom Rider and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee member Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely—a descendant of Sally Hemings’ sister, Mary Hemings Bell—discussed the strong link between arts and activism. During the civil rights movement, protesters often changed the lyrics of Black spirituals to activist chants, giving them more strength and courage, she explained.
Despite her accomplishments, DuVernay stressed that she is no different from the Black filmmakers who came before her who told hard truths.
“The idea of storytelling and truth and excavating that and figuring it out, how to do that work and how to see it and not to criticize someone else for the way they see the story—this is the work that we have to continue to do that can disrupt our notions of narrative,” said DuVernay, who directed films like Selma and 13th. “If you assert your perspective with authority, then that’s your truth… The descendant community is asserting their perspective with authority, that’s the key.”
On Friday, descendants also attended a private rededication of the Burial Ground for Enslaved People, which holds over 40 graves. The descendant-led restoration effort was completed this year, including more accessible pathways, new plants, additional seating, new signs, and dedicated parking for descendants.
During the rededication ceremony, descendant Kayelynn Craft Day-Lyons—Preacely’s granddaughter—felt drawn to the area by her ancestors, inspiring her to want to restore more of her ancestors’ graves. “I just felt so grateful [and] blessed to have been able to even experience this,” she said.
Justin Reid, Virginia Humanities senior program officer, urged attendants to pass down their family history to the younger generation, while Niya Bates, former Monticello Getting Word project director, encouraged young people to share their family stories in innovative ways, like TikTok videos.
Following the four-hour event, Preacely reflected on her ancestors who may have been activists too.
“Did they try to recruit rebellion? Was that never talked about? Will we uncover that there was resistance that we never heard of?” she asked.
Preacely hoped Juneteenth would continue to be an entry point for all people to honor Black history—and a “time of reconciliation, reempowerment, and education.”
For descendant Gayle Jessup White, celebrating Juneteenth at Monticello was “a proud day of reflection and honor,” especially as the first descendant of Jefferson and the people he enslaved to work for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
“[We] raise our ancestors to the stature that they deserve, [and] recognize the work that they did—the sacrifice that they did, the effort that they put into getting free, holding it together while laboring with no reward, and laying down the foundation for us, their descendants, to rise and succeed,” she said.
“My descendants left here in bondage as slaves, and when I come here, I know that their sweat, tears, and spirits didn’t make it out of here,” added descendant Gregory Jefferson. “But I know that they didn’t do that in vain. Because [of] their work and sacrifice, I am living and breathing…I give honors and praise to them.”