Georgetown University Will Give Priority Admission to Descendants of Slaves

Georgetown University announces it will offer priority admission to descendants of slaves the school once sold.

September 1, 2016

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Georgetown University announced Thursday it will offer priority admission to applicants who are descendants of slaves the school once sold to pay debts. A statement released by the school Thursday morning said the school is offering priority admission for slave descendants as a part of "the university’s ongoing process to acknowledge and respond to its historical ties to the institution of slavery."

University president John J. DeGioia said in the statement, "The most appropriate ways for us to redress the participation of our predecessors in the institution of slavery is to address the manifestations of the legacy of slavery in our time." The "participation" DeGioia made reference to was the school's sale of 272 men, women, and children in 1838. DeGioia said that the school will be actively recruiting descendants to attend the school.

The school formed the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, which has been working for months to collect feedback and make plans for acknowledging the school's involvement with the slave trade and to engage with descendants and "move forward toward justice and truth," according to DeGioia's remarks.

David Collins, S.J., the chairman of the Working Group, said it's important for the school to take responsibility for their history, and acknowledge how the history of slavery still impacts the present: "As we join the Georgetown community we must understand that part of our history is this history of slaveholding and the slave trade. And that opens our eyes to broader social issues that are still unhealed in our nation. History matters up to the present and into the future."

The school also plans to issue an official apology for its participation in the salve trade, create memorials for the people it sold, and establish the Institute for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies, among other recommendations made by the Working Group.