07/13/2026
ABC World News with David Muir recently covered my experience meeting with a distant cousin. Reverend Douglas Banks and I are both lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson - one of us descended from his white family, one from his black family.
Trevor Hilliar and I lost our mom, Mary Coolidge, two weeks ago. She was casual and humble. Her friends never knew that her family lineage was like a history book. As Trevor and I sat with her closest friends after she passed, not one of them knew that she was a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson (they assumed she was descended from Calvin. We're not. We're distant cousins). Mom's family lineage - our lineage - isn't something we talked publicly about. I haven't talked much about it in decades. But I have felt the calling over the past year to accept responsibility, and with that I'm trying to right some past wrongs.
Last year I went to Monticello for a gathering of Jefferson descendants when a young woman spoke up about the Hemings descendants being denied the access and property rights deeded to Thomas Jefferson's descendants. Sensing a meeting about to break down into contentious debate, I suggested the creation of a committee that became The Monticello Family Reconciliation Committee. I've chaired the group since; and a year later we are making strides to try to correct some past wrongs. This feels right after decades of having an uncomfortable feeling in my heart. It's amazing, when you make the right choice, it always feels right.
I see good things ahead for the committee. I think we can be a model for how America can face the dark parts of our history in a way that's based on acknowledging and facing the truth - both the good and bad - and done so with love in our hearts instead of fear.
Mom lived with quiet humility. I hope, in my own way, to carry her humility forward. Last week it was with a national TV audience watching, which definitely felt scary and vulnerable. I'm grateful to Briana Stewart the story's producer of ABC World News Tonight with David Muir for handling a tender subject with such grace. I never got a chance to tell my mom that this story was running. She passed too soon. But I think she is pleased looking from the spirit wrelm.
Descendants of America's third president, Thomas Jefferson, grapple with history and belonging.
