Best views, weather, etc. How to test them 👓 SC, Ala. sites look back Betty Ford honored
NATION NOW
Georgetown University

Georgetown University, Jesuits formally apologize for role in slavery

Shawn Sullivan
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — In a special ceremony Tuesday morning, the Jesuit order that founded Georgetown University formally apologized to the descendants of 272 slaves sold in 1838 to pay off the university's debts.

More than 100 descendants of these slaves gathered at ornate Gaston Hall for the Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope, where the apology was delivered by the Rev. Tim Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

"Today the Society of Jesus, who helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors, stands before you to say that we have greatly sinned, in our thoughts and in our words, in what we have done, and what we have failed to do,“ Kesicki said.

From left, Rev. Robert Hussey, S.J.,  Onita Estes-Hicks, Ph.D. (Descendant), Rev. Leroy Baker (Descendant),
Sandra Green Thomas (Descendant), listen as Bishop Barry C. Knestout speaks, Tuesday, April, 18 2017, during the Liturgy of Remembrance,  Contrition, and Hope in Washington DC, as Georgetown University apologizes for selling slaves to pay off debts.  The descendants listed above are descendants of those slaves.

"We are profoundly sorry — it is our very enslavement of another, our very ownership of another, culminating in the tragic sale of 272 women, men, and children that remains with us to this day, trapping us in an historic truth, for which we implore mercy and justice, hope and healing."

Georgetown's slave-owning past drew national attention last year after a group of students demanded the school change the names of two buildings that honored former university presidents involved in the sale of slaves from Jesuit plantations in southern Maryland to a Louisiana plantation.

Renaming university buildings with racist namesakes is an uphill battle

Student protesters see victory in Georgetown addressing historical ties to slavery

The day of remembrance was set symbolically two days after Easter and a day after Emancipation Day, a holiday that marks the 1862 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

It also comes seven months after the university announced plans in acknowledgment of its connections to the slave trade. Those plans were sparked by a 104-page report from a working group of students and faculty that met for a year before making recommendations. A push toward greater diversity, including the creation of a department of African American studies, has followed.

Georgetown President John J. DeGioia addressed both the past and the present in his own statement Tuesday.

"We do not seek to move on with this apology, but to move forward with open hearts to respond to the urgent demands of justice, still present in our time. The expression of contrition that we offer today guides, permeates, animates our ongoing work for justice. We build a more just world with honest reflection on our past and commitment to a faith that does justice," DeGioia said.

Atoning for slavery is not simple or cheap: Column

Georgetown to atone for its role in slavery

Following the liturgy, Thomas F. Mulledy Hall was re-dedicated to Isaac Hawkins, a 65-year-old slave named first in the sales agreement. Most of his children and grandchildren were also sold to Louisiana businessmen. The William McSherry building was dedicated to Anne Marie Becraft, who founded a school for black girls in Georgetown in the 1820s and who later joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the oldest group of nuns started by women of African descent.

Sandra Green Thomas (Descendant, Harris and Ware Family Lines) President of GU272 Descendants Association, speaks to guests, Tuesday, following the Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope at Georgetown University.

Some of the descendants of those slaves spoke during the ceremony, jointly hosted by the school, the Jesuit order and the Archdiocese of Washington. In her remarks Tuesday, Sandra Green Thomas recognized the apology as a positive step toward atonement.

“Their pain is unparalleled, their pain is still here, it burns in the soul of every person of African descent in the United States, it lives in people, some of whom have no knowledge of its origins, but who cope with the ever-present longing and lack it causes," said Thomas, president of the GU272 Descendants Association.

“And so, I return. No, we the descendants return to the home place, to our ancestor’s home place acknowledging contrition, offering forgiveness, hoping for penance, and more importantly seeking justice for them and ourselves.”

Contributing: Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service

Featured Weekly Ad