Williams: First, Montpelier reversed its promise to share power with the descendants of the enslaved. Now, he is withdrawing from his history of slavery.

Montpelier, the estate of James Madison, has gone from being the toast of the museum world to being, well, just toast.

In March, the Montpelier Foundation board reneged on a June 2021 restructuring that gave descendants of those enslaved there “structural parity” on its board, a change criticized by Montpelier staff who had spent decades partnering with the community. of descendants to excavate the estate’s history of slavery. .

And starting last week, Montpelier Foundation Executive Director Roy Young has fired or suspended members of his staff, including the firings of Executive Vice President and Chief Curator Elizabeth Chew, Archeology Director Matt Reeves and the spokesperson Christy Moriarty.

Chew and Reeves learned of their layoffs Monday through their personal email while on vacation.

A much-lauded promise of equal power-sharing with the descendants of the enslaved has become the removal of the key personnel responsible for uncovering the history of slavery on the estate of “The Father of the Constitution.”

“They wanted to move the Montpelier narrative away from slavery, despite all their protests to the contrary,” said board member James French, chairman of the Montpelier Descendants Committee. “And they wanted to create a false history that sees slavery and the constitution as unrelated opposites when, in fact, freedom and slavery held the same place in Montpelier as no other place in the country.”

The targeted employees collectively have more than 50 years of service in Montpelier and 100 years of experience in their fields, according to Cultural Heritage Partners, the law firm that represents the MDC.

A majority of the Montpelier Foundation board maintains that it should be able to choose its own list of descendants, an absurd notion that isn’t really parity at all.

In March, Montpelier staff issued a statement requesting that the Montpelier Foundation “recognize the MDC as the sole representative of the descendants of those enslaved in Montpelier under the agreement signed by TMF with the MDC and the National Trust for Historic Preservation on March 21.” August 2020”. (The Montpelier Foundation leases the property from the National Trust as part of a co-management agreement.)

Staff also sought an end to “intimidation of staff with restrictions on contacting MDC members, including requirements to report all contacts, with implied or threatened retaliation for failure to do so.” Board chairman Gene Hickok denied staff were being policed, a laughable claim in light of the firings and suspensions.

“This is work that we have been doing in Montpelier for over 20 years and we have set a standard in the field,” Chew said Tuesday. He called the board’s actions “inconceivable. And now, they’ve gotten rid of what they see as the troublemakers.”

“They have basically undone two decades of work and progress and a potential model for structural parity,” Chew said. “They seem impervious to the mountain of doom that has rained down on them.”

Hickok, in a statement Tuesday, accused MDC leaders of working “tirelessly for months to create dissension and division among staff” who, “as a result, have spoken disparagingly, even hatefully” of the board.

The environment in Montpelier “had become unsustainable and toxic, exacerbated by misleading public statements made by the MDC and by the bias shown by the National Trust for Historic Preservation,” he said. “The work was not being done. The projects were being stopped.”

MDC and Montpelier staff members say the board was never that keen on parity — it was initially rejected before narrowly passing — and almost immediately regretted its action.

“The CEO and President continue to blame everyone but themselves for this sad situation,” the MDC said in a statement Tuesday. “They are submerged in a bubble of denial. They blame the descendants, they blame their staff, they blame the National Trust for Historic Preservation, they blame every other national organization that has condemned their actions, they blame the media, they imply that the public is too dumb to understand.

“Montpelier’s largest annual fundraising dinner was canceled today because donors are leaving in droves. So soon, we hope they will blame the donors.”

So this is more than history. Montpelier’s viability is at risk.

“The National Trust strongly condemns these actions against highly respected and nationally recognized professionals, which will impede the effective stewardship of Montpelier and diminish important public programming at this highly significant historic site,” the preservation organization said in a statement Monday. . “…These and other recent Foundation actions lead us to question whether resolution is possible under current Foundation leadership.”

“I think the National Trust has to act,” French said. “It’s your property, and the house is on fire.”

Montpelier’s history is about to be whitewashed; his once-stellar reputation charred.

There is only one way forward: rehire the staff and lose the arsonists.