Georgetown has sought to reckon with and reconcile its history as an institution that benefited from the enslavement and sale of people of African descent, as well as to engage the broader legacies of enslavement, segregation, discrimination, and racism in our country.
In 2015, President DeGioia charged a Working Group to provide recommendations on how best to acknowledge and address Georgetown’s historical relationship with the institution of slavery and the slave trade.
Georgetown Reflects on Slavery, Memory, and ReconciliationThe recommendations provided by the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation initiated a series of long-term efforts to reconcile the University’s history with slavery, including through academic and research initiatives, public history and memorialization, and Descendant engagement.
Read the Report
Georgetown and the Society of Jesus’ Maryland Province apologized for their roles in the 1838 sale of more than 270 enslaved individuals for the university’s benefit in the company of more than 100 descendants.
A just society requires that its members accept responsibilities for one another; that we are prepared to take care of one another; that we are prepared to sacrifice for one another.
John J. DeGioia, Reflections on Citizenship and a Just Society, 2014
The Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies was founded in 2023 on the recommendation of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation. The Center advances academic research, education, and public programs about the history and legacies of slavery in and around Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and Catholic America.
Center for the Study of Slavery
