According to Randall M. Miller, Ph.D., professor emeritus of history, Georgetown was not the first, or only, university to research and acknowledge its historical role in slavery.
“Brown University pretty much led the charge on that because one of the benefactors that helped create Brown had been involved in the slave trade,” Miller said. “So they not only looked at it themselves, but they put a call out for other schools.”
After Georgetown’s revelations in 2015, a group of faculty and students at St. Joe’s decided to form a working group to explore the history of St. Joe’s ties to the slave trade.
“It was co-created but never really got off the ground in the sense of having formal meetings,” Miller said. “It was actually conducted in an ad hoc manner, involving faculty and trying to encourage students to do projects related to this.”
An April 2019 article published in The Hawk reported that the university’s working group on St. Joe’s ties to slavery had been inactive for two years. Jenny Spinner, Ph.D., professor of English, is the only member of the original working group still at the university.
“I think a number of us hoped we would have our own Georgetown moment, not necessarily in what we would find but in the desire to look unflinchingly at our past as an institution,” Spinner said. “St. Joe’s is part of the Jesuit history connected to enslaved people. We wanted to understand that connection. But university administrators at the time seemed reluctant to truly support this work.”
Other universities, such as Georgetown, have taken tangible steps to reflect on their history. Some of these steps include creating opportunities for open dialogue among university community members and descendants of the 272 enslaved people. Georgetown has also taken academic and research initiatives to expand knowledge and understanding
“I think there’s a real opportunity for St. Joe’s campus community to begin looking into their history and learn about the ties [between the Jesuits and slavery],” Schmidt said in an interview with The Hawk. “This campus still has historical roots in these histories of exploiting and benefiting from the exploited labor of others values.”
Schmidt said she had to examine her own privilege as a graduate of Xavier University and Loyola University Chicago, both Jesuit institutions.
“My experience as a Jesuit-educated student brought me here today to this Jesuit university, and caused me to acknowledge and address the privileges I’ve gained through religious academic institutions, which endured today due to their historical exploitation of human beings,” Schmidt said in the lecture. “Our Jesuit affiliation calls all of us here to do the same.”
Schmidt’s lecture was not the first event St. Joe’s has hosted to reflect on Jesuit slaveholding. A panel titled “Living with the Sins of the Past: Perspectives of Jesuit Slaveholding,” took place on Oct. 18, 2016. Tia Noelle Pratt, Ph.D., now director of Mission Engagement & Strategic Initiatives and courtesy assistant professor of sociology at Villanova University, was part of that panel, along with Miller.
“Having events like we had back in October 2016, or Dr. Schmidt’s talk last night, these things are important, but they’ve got to translate into action,” Pratt said.
According to Randall M. Miller, Ph.D., professor emeritus of history, Georgetown was not the first, or only, university to research and acknowledge its historical role in slavery.
“Brown University pretty much led the charge on that because one of the benefactors that helped create Brown had been involved in the slave trade,” Miller said. “So they not only looked at it themselves, but
they put a call out for other schools.” After Georgetown’s revelations in 2015, a group of faculty and students at St. Joe’s decided to form a working group to explore the history of St. Joe’s ties to the slave trade.
“It was co-created but never really got off the ground in the sense of having formal meetings,” Miller said. “It was actually conducted in an ad hoc manner, involving faculty and trying to encourage students to do projects related to this.” An April 2019 article published in The Hawk reported that the university’s working group on St. Joe’s ties to slavery had been inactive for two years. Jenny Spinner, Ph.D., professor of English, is the only of the original working group still at the university.
“I think a number of us hoped we would have our own Georgetown moment, not necessarily in what we would find but in the desire to look unflinchingly at our past as an institution,” Spinner said. “St. Joe’s is part of the Jesuit history connected to enslaved people. We wanted to understand that connection. But university administrators at the time seemed reluctant to truly support this work.”
Other universities, such as Georgetown, have taken tangible steps to reflect on their history. Some of these steps include creating opportunities for open dialogue among university community members
and descendants of the 272 enslaved people. Georgetown has also taken academic and
research initiatives to expand knowledge and understanding
“I think there’s a real opportunity for St. Joe’s campus community to begin looking into their history and learn about the ties [between the Jesuits and slavery],” Schmidt said in an interview with The Hawk. “This campus still has historical roots in these histories of exploiting and benefiting from the exploited labor of others values.” Schmidt said she had to examine her own privilege as a graduate of Xavier University and Loyola University Chicago, both Jesuit institutions.
“My experience as a Jesuit-educated student brought me here today to this Jesuit university, and caused me to acknowledge and address the privileges I’ve gained through religious academic insti-
tutions, which endured today due to their historical exploitation of human beings,” Schmidt said in the lecture. “Our Jesuit affiliation calls all of us here to do the same.”
Schmidt’s lecture was not the first event St. Joe’s has hosted to reflect on Jesuit slaveholding. A panel titled “Living with the Sins of the Past: Perspectives of Jesuit Slaveholding,” took place on Oct. 18, 2016. Tia Noelle Pratt, Ph.D., now director of Mission Engagement & Strategic Initiatives and courtesy assistant professor of sociology at Villanova University, was part of that panel, along with Miller.
“Having events like we had back in October 2016, or Dr. Schmidt’s talk last night, these things are important, but they’ve got to translate into action,” Pratt said.
Eddie Daou ’22 contributed to this story.
