University of Virginia suspends tours that had come under fire for mentioning Thomas Jefferson’s ties to slavery

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August 30, 2024

By David K. Li, NBC

Thomas Jefferson statue at University of Virginia — Thomas Jefferson statue at the University of Virginia (Fabebk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The University of Virginia suspended a campus tour program that had been criticized for citing school founder Thomas Jefferson’s ties to slavery, officials said Friday.

The tours led by University Guide Service have been plagued by spotty attendance by student volunteers and issues with “consistency” in content, university officials said in a statement to NBC News.

The school has been “in close contact with the student-led University Guide Service” for two years “to address a trend of issues and concerns surrounding guide attendance and tour consistency, and to discuss plans for improvement,” UVA said in statement.

The Jefferson Council, a conservative alumni group, had been calling for an end or change to the tour program, insisting that volunteers had been wrongly besmirching the legacy of UVA’s founder.

NBc offers more details about The Jefferson Council’s reaction.

Decisions like this make it harder to learn about Black history in the US.

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