Shay Banks-Young

Shay Banks-Young was a radio and TV personality and poet in Columbus, Ohio. After genetic testing in 1998 established a connection between Madison Hemings’s brother Eston and Thomas Jefferson, she went on the Oprah Winfrey show and met Eston’s descendant Julia Jefferson Westerinen.  Following that encounter, Banks-Young and Westerinen brought a discussion of racial issues, titled “A Conversation in Black and White,” to audiences around the country.

• Elizabeth Hemings

  1735-1807

• Sally Hemings

  1773-1835

• Madison Hemings

  1805-1877

• Harriet Hemings Butler

  1842–1925

• Shay Banks-Young

  1944-2016

Shay Banks-Young

Shay Banks-Young at Monticello

Shay Banks-Young's mother, Frances Hill Harris

Shay Banks-Young's son, W. Douglas Banks II

Related People

• Madison Hemings - Ancestor
• Julia Jefferson Westerinen - Cousin