Word: jefferson
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Reading the papers last week, I came across an intriguing story about the first reunion of Thomas Jefferson's descendants since a high-tech paternity test established that our third President fathered at least one son by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. It got me thinking about my own white relatives and my strained relationship with them...
...some of the 700-member all-white Monticello Association don't want to let their black relatives in, even as corpses. They weren't even planning to invite Hemings' 33 known descendants to the reunion until Lucian Truscott IV--a writer who seems to have inherited more of Jefferson's spirit than the rest of the Monticello Association put together--threatened to show up with a gang of black cousins and disrupt the entire affair...
That episode, like the flap over Jefferson and Hemings, is a reminder that in a country with so many mixed-up genes, telling who's "black" and who's "white" isn't always easy. Black folks play a game called Name That Negro, in which we try to guess which well-known folks passing as Caucasians are really light-skinned blacks. During the impeachment trial of President Clinton, for example, a lot of us joked that one of the Republican House managers fit the profile so well, he should avoid driving through New Jersey...
...December of last year, with economies settling down and currencies stabilizing, Rubin began to put in motion a long-contemplated plan to return to the private sector. Dining with Summers at the Jefferson Hotel, Rubin's Washington residence, he broke the news that he was leaving. Rubin felt strongly that the announcement of his departure and Summers' succession should be simultaneous. The Secretary also wanted to allow financial markets a full trading day to digest the news. Allaying market anxieties as well was an uncharacteristically non-opaque endorsement from Alan Greenspan reassuring Wall Street that Greenspan and Summers, whose friendship...
...Allston resident reported to CPD that at 2 a.m. at 2 Jefferson Park, he was approached by two black males, both about 18 years of age, who placed a firearm to his head. The suspects then took the victim's wallet, gold chain and wristwatch. The wallet contained $60 in cash and a driver's license...