Descendents of the 272 enslaved Africans sold in 1838 by Jesuit priests associated with Georgetown University will be among the attendees at a religious ceremony and building rededication that recognizes the institution’s ties to slavery.
The “Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope” will take place at 10 a.m. April 18 in the Washington, D.C. campus’ Gaston Hall. Georgetown is hosting the ceremony in partnership with the Archdiocese of Washington and the Society of Jesus in the United States.
The day will also include a renaming ceremony for buildings named after two of the Jesuit priests who sold the nearly 300 slaves – then working on a Maryland plantation – to Louisiana plantation owners, putting some of the proceeds toward paying the university’s debts. Isaac Hawkins Hall, formerly known as Mulledy Hall, will be named after the first slave listed on the sale receipt. The second building will be named Anne Marie Becraft Hall after a free woman of color who established a school in the town of Georgetown for Black girls. Hall was also a member of the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence, the oldest and first successful order of Roman Catholic nuns of African descent.
The April 18 events are part of an ongoing effort, initiated in 2015 by the university to confront and make restitution for its historic ties to slavery, including its engagement of the descendants of those 272 slaves. In June 2016, for example, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia met with Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, a descendant of two of the slaves who were sold in 1838.
“More than a dozen universities have recognized their ties to slavery and the slave trade,” wrote New York Times reporter Rachel Swarns in her June 14, 2016 article. “But historians say they believe this is the first time that the president of an elite university has met with the descendants of slaves who had labored on a college campus or were sold to benefit one.”
Students walk past a Jesuit statue in front of Freedom Hall, center, formerly named Mulledy Hall, on the Georgetown University campus, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Washington. After renaming the Mulledy and McSherry buildings at Georgetown University temporarily to Freedom Hall and Remembrance Hall, Georgetown University will give preference in admissions to the descendants of slaves owned by the Maryland Jesuits as part of its effort to atone for profiting from the sale of enslaved people. Georgetown president John DeGioia announced Thursday that the university will implement the admissions preferences. The university released a report calling on its leaders to offer a formal apology for the university’s participation in the slave trade. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
DeGioia committed to creating an African American Studies Department and has said descendants will get priority for admissions to the university; there has also been numerous conferences, teach-ins and other events dedicated to the issue.
James Benton, a Georgetown alumnus hired to organize the university’s efforts, said he believes the university can successfully confront its shameful past and that it may set a clear example for others to follow.
Remembrance Hall, formerly named McSherry Hall, is seen on the Georgetown University campus, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Washington. After renaming the Mulledy and McSherry buildings at Georgetown University temporarily to Freedom Hall and Remembrance Hall, Georgetown University will give preference in admissions to the descendants of slaves owned by the Maryland Jesuits as part of its effort to atone for profiting from the sale of enslaved people. Georgetown president John DeGioia announced Thursday that the university will implement the admissions preferences. The university released a report calling on its leaders to offer a formal apology for the university’s participation in the slave trade. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“Whether we like it or not, the 1838 sale and how Georgetown and the descendants and the Jesuits deal with that and its aftereffects form a metaphor for race relations in our country today,” he said, according to an article on the university website. “It has the potential to provide a positive counterpoint to all the discussions we have had on race in the past couple of years, which include police brutality, income inequality and other issues with the backdrop of a presidential election that had racial overtones.
“How this turns out may also be a metaphor for our capacity as a nation to face these issues.”