Great-Great-Great-Great Niece
Gayle Jessup White is Sally Hemings’ great-great-great-great niece and plays a large role as Monticello’s Community Engagement Officer. “As an African American descendant, I have mixed feelings – Thomas Jefferson was a slaveholder… But for too long our history has been ignored,” she added. “Some people still don’t want to admit that the Civil War was fought over slavery. We need to face history head-on and face the blemish of slavery and that’s what we’re doing at Monticello.”