Join us for the 2025 Earle C. Clements Lecture-Symposium featuring Gayle Jessup White, author of Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for Her Family’s Lasting Legacy, as she discusses her 50-year journey to confirm her family’s oral history that they are descended from the country’s third president.

The lecture will be held in the Young Library Auditorium on Tuesday, September 16 at 5:30pm. The event is free and open to the public. Copies of Reclamation will be available for purchase and a book signing will be held after the lecture.

RSVPs are appreciated. 

Gayle Jessup White is the first public relations and community engagement officer at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the nonprofit that owns and operates Monticello. A former award-winning television reporter and anchor, White started her career at the New York Times. She has written and spoken extensively about her work at Monticello, the legacies of slavery, and her family’s contributions to American history.

The annual Clements Lecture-Symposium honors the legacy of Earle C. Clements, who served as governor of Kentucky and represented the state in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. The event is made possible by the generous gifts of Clements’ daughter, Bess Clements Abell, her husband Tyler Abell, and their two sons, Dan and Lyndon.