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    Jefferson's hometown snubs his birthday

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    A Virginia that became the site of a deadly white nationalist rally in 2017 is preparing to celebrate a holiday marking the end of slavery.

    On Tuesday, Charlottesville will mark the first “Liberation and Freedom Day” to commemorate the freeing of the city's slaves in 1865.

    The holiday will replace an annual birthday celebration of US Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, a slave-owner.

    The city voted last year to scrap the April Jefferson holiday.

    The third US president, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and founded the nearby University of Virginia, is often central to debate over Charlottesville's legacy of racial discrimination.

    His estate, Monticello, once enslaved hundreds of African Americans.

    When Union troops marched into the city at the end of the US Civil War, there were 14,000 black people living in the Charlottesville area, representing a majority.

    The city council said the new local holiday, which will see many city offices and official buildings close, has “shifted the focus from a slave-owner's birthday”.

    “While there are many things we appreciate about Jefferson's contributions to the United States and our community, today the city is being much more intentional about telling a more complete history of our community,” city council said in July, when the body voted to axe the Jefferson holiday.

    The Founding Father's birthday on 13 April had been celebrated every year since 1945.

    Why…

    Continue Reading This Article At BBC News

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