Descendants of American founding father, Thomas Jefferson, and of the slave by whom he is supposed to have had a son, have met for the first time but put off a decision on mutual acceptance.
The white descendants of Jefferson, the third President of the US, are known as the Monticello Association, after the home in Virginia which he designed and where he kept slaves.
One of these, Sally Hemings, was reputed to have been his mistress and to have had at least one child by him. But this claim by the Hemings family was rejected until DNA tests which supported it were released earlier this year.
As a result, the Monticello Association invited the Hemings descendants to their annual meeting at Monticello last weekend.
The white Jeffersons refused, however, to allow the Hemings to join the association at this stage until further research is carried out. If admitted to the association, the Hemings would have the right to be buried in the family cemetery in the grounds of the Jefferson mansion.
A motion to admit the Hemings as honorary members until the report is concluded was voted down.
Some tension between the two groups was reported at a private lunch in a hotel near Monticello, when the white descendants wanted the Hemings to leave before dessert to allow a discussion of "family business". This motion was defeated by a 30-23 vote.
Applause greeted the decision, according to a Hemings descendant, Mr Bill Dalton, who said "it got a little tense" before that.
Mr Lucian Truscott, a white Jefferson descendant, who first invited the Hemings to the meeting, told reporters afterwards that there was "an element of racism" in the arguments to deny immediate membership to the Hemings.
But another Jefferson descendant, Ms Theresa Shackelford, who wants the paternity claim further researched, did not agree. "I'm for any lineal descendant to be able to be buried at Monticello, black, white or purple. We're not racists. We're snobs."