US

Connecticut Democrat Leaders Debate Condemning Thomas Jefferson As A Racist

Wikimedia Commons

Font Size:

The Connecticut Democratic Party is considering to rename its annual fundraiser dinner because its namesake, U.S. Founding Father and 3rd President, Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves.

Since Dylann Roof’s mass shooting at a traditionally African-American church in South Carolina, states have taken down statues and renamed buildings that commemorate leaders from U.S. history that were linked to the Confederacy.

And now, CT Post reports, Connecticut is jumping on the bandwagon and extending the movement to all historic leaders who were in any way associated with slavery since the beginning of American history.

Connecticut Democratic Party chairman, Nick Balletto, has proposed to strike Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson from the title of the party’s 67-year-old annual fundraiser, the Jefferson Jackson Bailey (JJB) Dinner.

“Democrats are the party of inclusion,” Balletto said in a statement to The Daily Caller. “And in my opinion, the time has come to reevaluate the name of the JJB to reflect the diverse makeup and forward-looking vision of our party.”

The namesake of this fundraiser commemorates Jefferson and Jackson as the founders of the Democratic Party, and John Moran Bailey as the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and leader in Connecticut Democratic politics.

Among those in support of Balletto’s proposal, the Connecticut NAACP president, Scot X. Esdaile, who is pressuring Connecticut Democrats to reconsider honoring these figures in history.

“Democrats have a deeply rooted history with slavery,” Esdaile said to The Hartford Courant, “They need to do the right thing.”

The Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee will vote on whether or not to rename the event on July 22. And Balletto is optimistic about rallying members’ support.

“I believe that it is my job as party chair to lead on these issues,” Balletto said. “And I hope the Democratic State Central Committee will join me in advocating for what I believe is a much needed change.”

However, there is one predominant Connecticut Democrat who will not support Balletto, and is siding with President Jefferson on this one: U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro.

“I’m proud of Thomas Jefferson,” DeLauro told The Hartford Courant. “I think Thomas Jefferson is a founding father.”

The congresswoman explained that looking at Jefferson’s entire legacy, as opposed to one detail, paints a very different picture of the former president.

Jefferson may have owned slaves, DeLauro said, but you can’t forget that he was also a major advocate for legislation that would have abolished slavery.

Jefferson drafted numerous bills to regionally abolish slavery, protect former slaves after emancipation, as well as make it easier for slaves to be freed. He even attempted to use British and Portuguese export companies to transport emancipated Virginia slaves back to the west coast of Africa.

I applaud [him],” DeLauro continued, “I have great admiration for Thomas Jefferson.”

Disclosure: The author of this piece is the chairman of the Connecticut Federation of College Republicans and a journalism intern at The Daily Caller.  

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel