
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 6, 1995                   TAG: 9505100012
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AUTHOR TO SPEAK ON JEFFERSON

Judith P. Justus, author of a book on alleged black descendants of Thomas Jefferson, will speak on Jefferson Tuesday at the Grayson County 1908 Courthouse in Independence.

The Perrysburh, Ohio, resident is the author of "Down from the Mountain - The Oral History of the Hemmings Family: Are They the Black Descendants of Thomas Jefferson?"

A new movie, "Jefferson in Paris," starring Nick Nolte, portrays Jefferson and slave Sally Hemmings as lovers with possible descendants. Historians are in disagreement over its authenticity.

Justus is a retired instructor at the University of Toledo Community and Technical College. She has published articles on genealogy and pioneer history, and is working on a book about Ohio's one-room school houses.

She wrote her book on Jefferson after interviewing and taking oral histories from members of the Hemmings family and other black families in Ohio and doing research at Charlottesville and other Virginia locations.

Justus will discuss her book before the Grayson County Historical Society at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the courthouse auditorium. Copies will be available for sale after her talk, and she will sign them.

Admission is free. For further information, call Bill Bland at (703) 655-4420.

by CNB