Last year, Georgetown University came under fire after students demanded justice after history shown that the University had profited off the sale of 272 slaves back in 1838. The profits earned back then are now worth roughly $3.3 million and seeing as the school would have been forced to close had those slaves not been sold, Georgetown’s president John J. DeGioia has announced that there is a plan in place to offer a formal apology. Last September, he asked a group of scholars, administrators, teachers and students how the university could address its history and what they’ve settled on is truly remarkable.
For starters, DeGioia has decided to give preferential acceptance to the university for students who are descendants of any of the slaves whose labor benefited Georgetown, not just the slaves that were sold. The university has committed to building an institute for the study of slavery and to erecting a memorial honoring the slaves whose labor was of direct benefit the institution–especially those sold back in 1838 to keep the school from drowning in debt and ultimately closing.
Georgetown will also be renaming two buildings; Isaac Hall after a slave named Isaac who was sold to Louisiana and the other after Anne Marie Becraft Hall, an African American educator who built a school for black girls in Washington. Both buildings are currently named after Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. William McSherry. They were two of the university’s presidents who organized the slave trade back in 1838.
While all of this sounds great, it will be a lot of work to trace these potential students back to any of these people. Nevertheless, DeGioia is motivated to right the school’s wrongs. “We know we’ve got work to do, and we’re going to take those steps to do so,” he said on Wednesday.
Some people do not feel that this is enough Descendant Karran Harper Royal feels that she, along with other descendants, should have been included on the committee that decided on these gestures and feels that they should have been formally invited to DeGioia’s announcement today. “It has to go much farther,” she said. “They’re calling us family. Well, I’m from New Orleans and when we have a gathering, family’s invited.” Yikes…
What do you think, Roommates? Do you think that Georgetown is stepping up to the plate or do you think that they have more work to do?
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Source: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/us/slaves-georgetown-university.html?referer=
