Now there are three ways to fact check RFK Jr.’s graduation year: (1) walk down the hall, knock on Dean Dugas’s door, and ask him when RFK Jr. graduated; (2) use my extensive private investigative skills to dig into why Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica list different dates; or (3) ask the man himself. Only one option doesn’t involve making small talk.

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