Rewriting the Narrative of America’s Most Revered Founding Father 

By Tracy Chiles McGhee | Word In Black (WIB) – Annette Gordon-Reed made history as the first Black student to integrate her elementary school in Conroe, Texas, in the mid-1960s. Even as a youngster, she was fascinated by the life and times of the third President of the United States, who is also credited as the major framer of American democracy.  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE While other children were likely playing games, third grader Annette was questioning how Jefferson, an advocate of “liberty,” could also own people as property. That intellectual curiosity would inform Gordon-Reed’s formal education at Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, where she served on the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Years later, the historian and legal scholar would shatter the mythical sanctity of this nation’s most celebrated founding father. At the same time, she unerased the human dimension of enslaved women.& Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. THOMAS JEFFERSON Through extensive research and critical analysis, Gordon-Reed’s groundbreaking work challenged...