Shannon LaNier, a sixth great-grandson of founding father Thomas Jefferson and her slave, Sally Hemings, wore the same type of outfit as her famous ancestor for a Smithsonian magazine piece, “American Descendants.”
But LaNier, who is black, said in the article in the July issue of the magazine that he decided not to wear a wig.
“I didn’t want to become Jefferson,” said LaNier. “My ancestor had his dreams, and now it is up to all of us living in the United States today to make sure that no one is excluded from the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
LaNier, a Houston television presenter who co-authored a book about his family, “The Children of Jefferson: The Story of an American Family,” also said of the third President of the United States: “He was a brilliant man who preached equality, but it didn’t. ” Don’t practice it. He owned the people. And now I’m here for that.
The Smithsonian article features images by British photographer Drew Gardner, who some 15 years ago began tracking down descendants of famous Europeans like Napoleon and Charles Dickens to see if they “would pose as their famous ancestors in the portraits he was recreating “says the article.
Then Gardner thought of the United States.
“Despite all its difficulties, the United States is the brightest idea,” says the photographer. The photographer “especially wanted to question the idea that the story is ‘white and masculine’,” the article says.
Other famous Americans featured alongside descendants in the piece are Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
LaNier posted the photos of him and Jefferson on Instagram, saying the magazine article “is helping to hold up a mirror” for the United States.
The side-by-side images show that Jefferson “was not only involved in the creation of this country but also in its people … black, white, brown, yellow, and red!” LaNier wrote.
