ORANGE — Within days of accepting the job, the new president of James Madison’s Montpelier reinstated the professional staff members fired and suspended by the Virginia historic site’s former executive,
<p>The board approved the appointment of 11 members nominated by the Montpelier Descendants Committee, and the resignation of the board chair who led the resistance to the appointments is pending. </p>
<p>The move may finally deliver on the board's promise to grant parity in the governance of the James Madison estate to the descendants of persons enslaved at Montpelier. </p>
Soledad O Brien, Harvard professor the Rev. Cornell Brooks among those elected to board overseeing presidential plantation in Orange, as structural parity still remains goal.