University of Virginia Pauses Tours After Backlash For Allegedly Mentioning Thomas Jefferson’s Link To Slavery

Why try to hide the truth?

The University of Virginia (UVA) suspended a campus tour program after being criticized for mentioning school founder Thomas Jefferson’s ties to slavery, NBC News reports.

Officials say the student-led tours provided by University Guide Service have been slacking in attendance by student volunteers and have issues with “consistency” in content, resulting in the pause. However, a conservative alumni group, The Jefferson Council, has been pushing for the tours to end for years, alleging that volunteers were falsely tarnishing the legacy of UVA’s founder.

The school claims it 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.” Council President and class of 1974 graduate Thomas Neale says his group is against any whitewashing of Jefferson’s status as a slave owner but wants a bigger contextualization of the third President of the United States and the author behind the Declaration of Independence.

He also professes that it was pushing Republican state Gov. Glenn Youngkin to place 13 appointees to the school’s 17-member governing board of trustees that led to this decision. “So yeah, we raised the issue, and now that they have 13 (appointees) — and not all of the Youngkin appointees are homogenous, some are fairly moderate — but all of them looked at this and said this has to change,” Neale said.

A spokesperson for UVA, Bethanie Glover, insists the university’s original statement did not cite the Jefferson Council’s ongoing campaign against University Guide Services and says, ” This is more to do with the guides not showing up for their scheduled tours.”

According to The Daily Progress, UVA’s Vice Provost for Enrollment, Stephen Farmer, also denied changes as an attempt “to shield visitors from truths about the University’s history.” “No administrator at the University has stated or suggested to the Guides that they should falsify the University’s history or avoid the history of enslavement at the University,” Farmer wrote.

Neale feels it should be highlighted that Jefferson signed the prohibition against the importation of enslaved people into law in 1807 and did other “commendable” things. “He’s (Jefferson) quoted by every country in the modern era as having started a democracy,” Neale said.

“There are many commendable things about him. Of course, mention he was a slave owner. That’s not hidden.”

Former tour guides claim there was a stricter framework surrounding the tours, including making “historical stops.” When tours stopped on the Lawn, a guide may have told visitors how the school was built, even touching on the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, resulting in student activism.

While the exact reason behind the tours being paused is unclear, a statement from the University Guide Service says there isn’t a clear plan “for how or when we will be allowed to give historical tours in the future.” Historian Niya Bates referred to the tour suspension as “censorship.” “UGS has been widely celebrated for adding the history of slavery and enslaved people — some my ancestors — to tours of UVA grounds. This is not about their performance, it’s about censorship,” Bates said.

The student-led group hopes to come to terms with the school and restart tours by spring 2025.