Amid praise, criticism and frustration, Jesuits confront their history as enslavers by committing to reparations

As with so many issues that make the news, it becomes necessary to read multiple articles — which tend to bury new details in a sea of repeated information — in order to find a more complete understanding.

Such was the case with an Associated Press article, "Lag in slavery reparations from US Jesuits irks descendants" (linked below). The article is an update on an issue that I first became aware of several years ago, while I was listening to a documentary about reparations. It involves the Jesuits, whose history includes the shameful enslavement of human beings in the construction and maintenance of Georgetown University. The story continues: Georgetown ultimately needed to pay off debts, so it sold its laborers, en masse, in one of the largest such sales in American history.

Initially, I was just going to include the following recommended articles under "Why reparations?" in "Racial injustice in American history" (part 6 in my series "On microaggressions and racial issues, particularly in the lifestyle: A resource for White people").

In the end, though, it seemed best to consolidate them into one post. As I mentioned above, there’s some repeated information in this collection. Nevertheless, I've included them because each article offers additional facts, which, in turn, contribute to a better overall picture.

• Jesuits pledge $100 million to benefit descendants of enslaved people, by Carol Zimmermann | Catholic News Service, Mar. 16, 2021. (While acknowledging Georgetown University's enslavement and subsequent sale of 272 people, the article does not mention the outcome of that sale. The effected people were then transported to a part of Louisiana that has historically posed even more barriers to Black people's success. This has made it even harder for their descendants to thrive in today's America.)
  A caveat: Catholic News Service, similar to Reuters and the Associated Press, is a Catholic news organ. As such, the cited article cannot be considered completely objective. At the same time, it's worth reading for its valuable insights into why the Jesuit order has committed itself to reparations.

• Jesuits pledge $100 million for descendants of enslaved people the Catholic order once owned, by Marisa Iati, The Washington Post, Mar. 16, 2021. ("The Georgetown Memory Project, a nonprofit organization, has identified roughly 10,000 descendants [of individuals enslaved and sold by Georgetown University], about 5,000 of whom are living.")

• Jesuits commit $100 million to the descendants of people the order once enslaved, by Scottie Andrew, CNN, Mar. 16, 2021. (This article contains additional information about how the reparations funds would be allocated.)

• Jesuits’ plan for reparations met with mixed reactions, by Domonique Tolliver, The Maroon (a publication of the Loyola Student Media), Apr. 21, 2021. (This article expands on the story of enslavement by the Jesuit order.)

• Descendant of Jesuit slaves in St. Louis applauds new initiative but isn’t sure how it will affect her , by Jesse Bogan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar. 18, 2021.

• The Jesuits’ plan to compensate their slaves’ descendants gets reparation wrong, by Annalisa Merelli, Yahoo! Finance, Jun. 3, 2021. (The criticisms outlined in this article are, indirectly, an exploration of what appropriate reparations should look like.)

• Lag in slavery reparations from US Jesuits irks descendants, by Deepa Bharath, Associated Press, Aug. 16, 2022.

• Georgetown University’s road to slavery reparations was paved with good intentions, leading to a can of worms, by John Murawski, National African-American Reparations Commission, Jul. 13, 2022. (Although this article doesn't quite live up to its headline, I'm including it because it presents a different set of statistics, as well as additional information about the Jesuits' use of enslaved labor.)

• For a list of related articles, see the “Slavery, the Society of Jesus, and Catholicism,” section of The Georgetown Slavery Archives “Further reading” page.

• Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation at Lauinger Library, part of the Georgetown University website. (“This guide describes significant sources within the Art, Manuscripts, Rare Books, and University Archives units of Booth for scholarly research and public conversations about slavery and race. The collections created by the Maryland Jesuits warrant special consideration because of the legacy of their participation in slavery and their role in the Christianization of Black people.“)
  Of particular interest: SMR: Narratives and Advocacy. (“This bibliography presents selected works that explore the legacy of Jesuit enslavement and advocate for reconciliation. Several of these works explore slavery at institutions founded by the Jesuits of Georgetown or others that benefited financially from the 1838 sale.“)