Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are history in Connecticut.
Under pressure from the NAACP, the state Democratic Party will scrub the names of the two presidents from its annual fundraising dinner because of their ties to slavery.
Party leaders voted unanimously Wednesday night in Hartford to rename the Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner in the aftermath of last month’s fatal shooting of nine worshipers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.
The decision is believed to be unprecedented and could prompt Democrats in other states with similarly named events to follow suit.
“I see it as the right thing to do,” Nick Balletto, the party’s first-year chairman, told Hearst Connecticut Media on Wednesday night.
“I wasn’t looking to be a trailblazer or set off a trend that’s going to affect the rest of the country. Hopefully, they’ll follow suit when they see it’s the right thing to do.”
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Democrats cited Jefferson and Jackson’s ownership of slaves as a key factor in the decision, as well as Jackson’s role in the removal of Native Americans from the southeastern U.S. in what was known as the Trail of Tears.
In 2005, the school board in the city of Berkeley, Calif., considered a measure to change the name of Thomas Jefferson Elementary School for similar reasons, but the moniker remains.
Scot X. Esdaile, the head of Connecticut’s NAACP, said it was high time for Democrats to rebrand the event.
“I would applaud the current leaders in Connecticut in making the symbolic first step and striving to right the wrongs of the past,” Esdaile said.
“You can’t right all the wrongs, but I think it’s a symbolic gesture of our support for their party.”
The decision immediately drew criticism from some historians as a politically correct overstep, including Robert Turner, a law professor at the University of Virginia, which was founded by Jefferson.
“It is a sad and short-sighted decision based upon tragic ignorance,” said Turner, who has written extensively about Jefferson’s legacy.
This December will mark the 150th anniversary of the enactment of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, which abolished slavery.
“The authors of that amendment purposely chose language drafted by Jefferson in an unsuccessful effort to outlaw slavery in the Northwest Territories as a means of honoring Jefferson’s struggle against slavery,” Turner said.
“If (Democrats) understood Jefferson’s lifelong opposition to slavery, they would have reached a different conclusion.”
A new name for the event, which marked its 67th year in June with Massachusetts Sen.Elizabeth Warren as its headliner, will be chosen in the fall.
The event’s third namesake, John Bailey, who led the state party and then the Democratic National Committee under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, will likely be preserved.
Balletto said blacks and Native Americans are a major constituency of the Democratic Party.
“When something offends someone, it’s beyond being politically correct,” Balletto said.
“It just causes a need for change.”
Balletto said Jefferson was a great founding father, but “had some issues.”
“You can’t change history, but you don’t have to honor it,” Balletto said.
neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
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