Georgetown University announced the first five grants from its Reconciliation Fund, which aims to assist the descendants of 272 slaves the school sold in the early nineteenth century to finance its foundation.
The first round of grants total $200,000 and are drawn from a fund set up in 2019 and funded by alumni donations. The school said it plans to award a similar amount twice a year.
According to the university the recipients of the fund include programmes “engaging young adults in rebuilding blighted homes in New Orleans, providing free legal services to families of loved ones with severe mental illnesses, uniting and connecting members of the descendant community, launching a high school tutoring program that’s co-organised by a descendant and Georgetown community members, and providing educational programming for children.”
Some of the grant recipients are based in Maryland and others in Louisiana and the grant applications were overseen by committees of both students and descendants.
The Descendant Advisory Committee was also tasked with alerting members of the descendant community about the available funding.
The Jesuits owned plantations in Maryland but sold their slaves in 1838 into the much harsher conditions of Louisiana plantation life in order to provide funding for the university, their first in the United States.
“The Reconciliation Fund is a collective effort — an example of our community’s deep commitment to the possibilities that can emerge when we work in partnership to advance Reconciliation,” says Georgetown’s president John J DeGioia.
“We are honoured to recognise these inaugural recipients and are deeply grateful for their meaningful and important work to advance equity and justice.”
Lee Baker, a member of the Descendant Advisory Committee, said the funding was part of the “transformational relationships between the university, especially students, and descendants of the GU272” but also acknowledged that more work needed to be done.
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