Georgetown University, a Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher education in Washington, D.C., is now offering preferential admission to the descendants of 272 slaves that the University had sold in 1838 to pay off its debt. More than 175 years later, the university is taking multiple steps, including a formal apology, to right their wrongs. This raises the question: should more colleges and universities look deeper into their past?
A New York Times article from earlier this year, before the changes were made at Georgetown, revealed that students brought light to the 1838 injustice by holding a protest and sit-in. However student protestors and newspaper articles did play a role but the process was in the works for about a year. The chairman of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation committee believes, in a letter to American Magazine, that strong leadership by the administration propelled the changes.
When asked about their first reaction to the news, both history and political science professors, Dr. Darryl Mace and Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald, were happy but not surprised by the recent changes.
“It’s about time,” said Fitzgerald. “It’s an institution actually acknowledging its role in a crime against humanity and that does not happen that often.”
According to a New York Times article written on Sept. 1, 2016, John J. DeGioia, the University’s president, “would offer a formal apology, create an institute for the study of slavery and erect a public memorial to the slaves whose labor benefited the institution, including those who were sold in 1838 to help keep the university afloat.” Two campus buildings, named after the presidents involved in the sale, will also be renamed – “one for an enslaved African-American man and the other for an African-American educator who belonged to a Catholic religious order.”
“Cabrini University was started in 1957 and it has no connection to enslavement,” said Fitzgerald. “Not every college or university or two-year school has any connection to that crime against humanity. But those that were around before the end of the Civil War…all had connections to enslavement.”
According to a 2014 article in the Washington Post, at least nine other institutions, such as Brown University and Harvard, have also publicly addressed their ties with slavery but Georgetown is the only institution of higher education to offer preferential admission to descendants.
“I think it is important for institutions to take a deep dive into their history and see what they have been about historically. If they are uncomfortable with those things or they feel guilty about those things then its an opportunity to take Georgetown’s example and provide some sort of atonement,” Mace said. “You can’t see who you are in the present if you can’t look back to the past.”
Georgetown University has a website titled, “Georgetown University: Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation” devoted to their history with slavery. The website includes a historic timeline of slavery in Maryland and slavery archives. The University also has a program called The Working Group, started in 2015, “to reflect on, engage with, and learn from its historic ties to slavery.”
Fitzgerald explained that the process of reaching social justice can be challenging. “To address problems sometimes you have to confront ugly, ugly, ugly truths,” said Fitzgerald.
