mr. dupont, the owner of montpelier at the time, wanted the train to stop for him and in order to have that happen, he needed to build a train station, so he did. come on inside and i'll show it to you. the history at montpelier is very interesting in the dupont era, because, of course, the duponts were not a southern family. the duponts, especially william and annie dupont, had actually lived in europe for a number of years before coming back to america where they chose to settle out here in western virginia. so they were coming into a different social atmosphere than they were accustomed to. either in delaware or where weather tthe family was in europe. and in the south, things were segregated. they were in the north to a lesser extent and certainly they weren't in europe. since he was living in the south, he to abide by customs, with a segregated set of waiting rooms. there were segregated kitchens and dining rooms for the laborers. segregated housing, and yet when it came to work, he gave people autonomy, based on their merit. his building foreman on the property was mitchell jackson, c

dupont circle. i hosted an event a few years ago and was thrilled to learn about the contributions all the way back, mr. speaker, to the revolutionary war. jews were not only a part of fighting the revolutionary war and fighting for freedom in the united states, but also financing and making sure that solomon was an important figure in ensuring we had the resources and the minute men had the resources to ultimately be able to make sure that we have a country and we are the beacon of freedom across the world that we are today that was in no small measure, thanks to the contributions of jews who were pioneers here in america. and lastly, i want to share some of the unique events that have happened throughout jewish american heritage month and will continue to foster and thrive and encourage both jews and non-jews to celebrate these rich traditions. earlier this month, on may 2, there was a focus and a program on religion and politics, called "when general grant expeled the jews," because it's so important and jewish community lieders talk so often about the importance of not forgetting about previous per