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Georgetown University will award preferential treatment in the admissions process to the descendants of the 272 slaves whose sale the university profited from nearly 200 years ago. The university announced the decision on Thursday, following the completion of a report by a working group that the university created to assess how best to atone for its involvement in slavery. The university will also establish a new Institute for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies at Georgetown, rename two campus buildings, and create a public memorial to enslaved people. The university said it will seek out the descendants of other slaves whose labor the university benefited from, as well, and also offer them preferential treatment in admissions.
“As we join the Georgetown community, we must understand that part of our history is this history of slaveholding and the slave trade,” David Collins, the working group's chair, said in a statement. “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.”
