Montpelier gets new leadership With more than half its members now representing the descendants of enslaved workers at Montpelier, the Montpelier Foundation Board is moving quickly to undo actions taken by previous leadership during a months-long dispute over control of the board. First on that to-do list: rehiring high-level staffers who’d been fired for speaking […]
Montpelier gets new leadership With more than half its members now representing the descendants of enslaved workers at Montpelier, the Montpelier Foundation Board is moving quickly to undo actions taken by previous leadership during a months-long dispute over control of the board. First on that to-do list: rehiring high-level staffers who’d been fired for speaking […]
After nearly two months of tension that included firings of high-level staff and public accusations of game-playing and racism against the Montpelier Foundation, the dispute between the foundation board and the Montpelier Descendants Committee has ended. At the May 16 foundation board meeting, the board voted in 11 new members recommended by the MDC, two […]
Questions linger in Montpelier controversy With less than a week before the May 16 meeting of the Montpelier Foundation board, initial interviews with 20 candidates put forth by the Montpelier Descendants Committee are underway. But MDC attorney Greg Werkheiser says there are still concerns that the dispute between the two organizations isn’t fully resolved. “They […]
Your move, Montpelier Foundation. That was the message delivered by the Montpelier Descendants Committee at an April 28 press conference announcing a slate of 20 candidates for nine spots on the Montpelier Foundation board and demanding the reinstatement of fired staff members who led the archaeological work at the fourth U.S. president’s former home. The […]
A dispute between the Montpelier Foundation board and the Montpelier Descendants Committee over a power-sharing agreement reached last summer has now snowballed into what appears to be a full-on revolt by staff at the fourth U.S. president’s historic estate. “By revoking parity with the MDC and by firing and suspending staff, TMF has attempted to […]
Timing is everything, and that can certainly be said of Montpelier Foundation co-founder William Lewis’ new book, which traces the history and extensive renovation of the fourth U.S. president’s former home. Montpelier Transformed: A Monument to James Madison and Its Enslaved Community was published Monday, April 11, amid an ongoing controversy over a power-sharing agreement […]
Nearly two weeks after the Montpelier Foundation Board voted to reverse an agreement to share power with the Montpelier Descendants Committee, the force of the backlash has dismayed the board’s leadership. The dispute between the board and the committee has also exposed division among some descendants about the future of the fourth U.S. president’s former […]
New birds on the block A red-breasted nuthatch in central Virginia? You gotta be kidding! Turns out that an unusually large number of irruptive bird species—or species that normally breed in northern boreal forests and sometimes migrate south when their food supply runs out—are wintering in our neck of the woods this year, according to […]