"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids--and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."
- Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"
Where is West Ford's Body?
Descendants and Sisters, Linda Allen Hollis, Angela Allen Henry, and Joy Allen Stone, stand by the old tomb of George Washington. In Ford oral history, West Ford's remains were placed in the tomb. In 1997 Linda Allen Hollis asked the Mount Vernon’s Ladies’ Association if the old tomb could be opened to find out if West Ford’s body was interred there for DNA testing. She was told that the tomb was a National Monument and that it would take a congressional court order to open it. In October 1998, on a subsequent visit, the tomb had been opened without any contact to the Ford family and Mount Vernon stated that it was found to be empty. It was renovated for public viewing in 1999 and now remains closed. Question: Where is West Ford's Body? (Photo Credit Mark Hollis for WFL).
