long and successful journalism career. before she turned her sights. thank god she did to monticello. she came to us in 2016 as our first public relations and community engagement officer. and it s my delight to welcome her tonight as a colleague. but more importantly as an honored speaker. a common refrain in gail s book is and i quote giving voice to the ancestors. and she does that of course and we try to do that by telling their stories. she describes herself as when i quote a woman whose voice is used as an instrument. not for herself but for those written out of history. a woman who after a lifelong journey founder family her home her purpose end of quote and in part it was because of monticello s work to find and learn from the descendants of its enslaved community. in a project called getting word. that gale found more of her family and their story gail s courageous telling of her story and that of her family. provides an inspiration to all of us and of course gail s
first lady of virginia is here tonight with us. thank you. [applause] many of you know that gayle had a long and successful journalism career before she turned her sights to monticello. she came to us in 2016. and it is my delight to welcome her tonight as a colleague, but more importantly as an honored speaker. a common refrain in gayle s book, and i quote, is giving voice to the ancestors. and she does that of course, by telling their stories. she describes herself as, and i quote, a woman whose voice is used as an instrument. not for herself, but for those written out in history. a woman who, after a lifelong journey, found her family, her home, her purpose. and quote. in part it was because of monticello its work to find and learn of the descendants of its enslaved community in a project called get where she found more of her story. her courage is telling of her story and that of her family provides an inspiration to all of us. and of course, gayle s book includes the w
i m david bodni. i m not jonathan rothschild. i m substituting for our former mayor. thank you for indulging me. i practice media and constitutional law and i am so privileged to be here with all of you and our distinguished panel in the interest of time. please permit me to give brief introductions of our panelists. to my immediate left hw brands holds the jack. yes blanton senior chair in history at the university of texas at austin for three decades. he has been writing histories and biographies. two of his books the first american and traitor to his class were finalists for the pulitzer prize. his latest work our first civil war was published in 2021. gail jessup white is the public relations and community. engagement officer at monticello thomas jefferson s extraordinary estate in albemarle county, virginia a former award-winning television reporter and anchor she began her career at the new york times. her latest work is titled reclamation and it too was published last
introductions of our panelists. to my immediate left hw brands holds the jack. yes blanton senior chair in history at the university of texas at austin for three decades. he has been writing histories and biographies. two of his books the first american and traitor to his class were finalists for the pulitzer prize. his latest work our first civil war was published in 2021. gail jessup white is the public relations and community. engagement officer at monticello thomas jefferson s extraordinary estate in albemarle county, virginia a former award-winning television reporter and anchor she began her career at the new york times. her latest work is titled reclamation and it too was published last year. and finally to your far right is david zakino. david is a contributing writer for the new york times. he s covered wars and civil conflicts in over two dozen countries awarded a pulitzer prize for his dispatches from south africa. he s a four-time pulitzer prize finalist for his r
holds the jack. yes blanton senior chair in history at the university of texas at austin for three decades. he has been writing histories and biographies. two of his books the first american and traitor to his class were finalists for the pulitzer prize. his latest work our first civil war was published in 2021. gail jessup white is the public relations and community. engagement officer at monticello thomas jefferson s extraordinary estate in albemarle county, virginia a former award-winning television reporter and anchor she began her career at the new york times. her latest work is titled reclamation and it too was published last year. and finally to your far right is david zakino. david is a contributing writer for the new york times. he s covered wars and civil conflicts in over two dozen countries awarded a pulitzer prize for his dispatches from south africa. he s a four-time pulitzer prize finalist for his reporting from iraq lebanon south africa and philadelphia. his l