Common Ground Award
Contact: Susan Koscis
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The 2010 Common Ground Awards
Announced by Search for Common Ground
Descendents of Thomas Jefferson
David Works, Shay Banks-Young & Julia Jefferson Westerinen
to Receive Award for Racial Healing
David Works, Shay Banks-Young and Julia Jefferson Westerinen are descendents of Thomas Jefferson. Their complicated relationships illustrate the legacy and inequity of America’s slave past. Shay, a black woman and Julia, a white woman, trace their roots to the relationship between Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings while David’s ancestry comes from Jefferson and his wife Martha.
It was Julia’s brother who provided the DNA proving what Shay’s family had long known: that Thomas Jefferson had children with Sally Hemings. Julia’s line is from their son, Eston, who passed for white, obscuring his connection to Jefferson. In contrast Eston’s brother Madison (Shay’s direct ancestor) lived as a man of color.
Dialogue about race in America has been contentious and often painful. But together and separately, David, Shay and Julia have worked to bridge the divide of mistrust within their own family and beyond.
There has been resistance to including the Jefferson-Hemings descendents at Jefferson family gatherings. But in 2003, after a successful reunion that brought both sides together, David and other family members created The Monticello Community, an inclusive group that hosts gatherings at Monticello.
Shay and Julia appear together publicly, lecturing and holding seminars around the country, telling their story and its implications for race-relations.
Shay and David have participated in “Coming to the Table”, a program that seeks to understand, acknowledge, and heal the persistent wounds of slavery.
Julia Jefferson Westerinen, Shay Banks-Young and David Works have begun the wider dialogue about race by starting with one conversation. They show that black and white Americans cannot be viewed as wholly separate people because they share common culture, common land, and often, even a common blood line.
The Common Ground Awards will be held on November 11, at 7:30pm at the National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street NW,Washington, DC.
Other 2010 Awardees
Just Vision
Ronit Avni, Founder & Executive Director and Julia Bacha, Producer & Media Director
For using media and community outreach to shine a light on Palestinian & Israeli efforts to resolve their conflict nonviolently
Eboo Patel
Founder & President, Interfaith Youth Core
For building a global interfaith youth movement
Jim Leach
Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities
For his national civility tour calling for respect for all and a renewal of the American spirit in public discourse
The Mathare Youth Sports Association
For using sports to effect positive social change by working across
religious, political, and tribal lines in Nairobi, Kenya
The British Government
For its apology and acknowledgement of responsibility for the
1972 Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland
The South African 1995 Springbok Rugby Team
For inspiring unity and healing through the power of sports
Media
Search for Common Ground website
NPR - Thomas Jefferson Descendants Work To Heal Family's Past
Photos
Shay Banks-Young
Shay with Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan and John Marks, founder of Search for Common Ground
David Works
Shay and David with Susan Collin Marks, Sr. VP of SFCG and wife of John Marks
Common Ground Awardees 2010
(L to R) Julia Bacha, Ronit Avni, Jim Leach, Julie Fisher, Shay, Julia, Peter Karanja, Dominick Chilcott, Joel Stransky
Eboo Patel, Brandon Fisher, David, Mijali Proestakis, Igor Proestakis, Richard Soppe, Gary Hall
Shay, Julia, David
Susan Collin Marks, Shay, Julia, David
Julia Westerinen
David Works