Before Spring Break, I wrote an article in Law Weekly about how I discovered that two of my ancestors (Confederate officers and prominent slaveholders Matthew Whitaker Ransom and Thomas Williams Mason) were associated with the University of Virginia School of Law. Since the publication of my last article, the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors unanimously voted to end its DEI Office, partly in response to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order No. 14173 and recent guidance by the U.S. Department of Education.

In 2022, I began researching my family tree. I more or less knew what to expect—I am a biracial man, and like most Black Americans once you go back far enough in your family tree you discover someone owned your ancestors. So I wasn’t terribly surprised to discover two white slaveholders on my Black father’s side of the family: Matthew Whitaker Ransom and Thomas Williams Mason. But I was absolutely shocked to learn that both men were associated with the University of Virginia School of Law

While driving north along Route 29 exiting Charlottesville, you may have noticed a cozy chalet of singular continental charm nestled off the side of the road. Or perhaps if you are anything like this correspondent, you notice this Old-World gem every time you travel north out of Charlottesville and invariably proclaim to your partner: “We must go there before I graduate.”