The Library has hosted several public programs to share documents, works of art, and artifacts that address the history of Jesuit enslavement and its impact at Georgetown. Such programs will continue on an ongoing basis.
Events sponsored by the Office of the President, Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies, and academic departments are not listed below. For upcoming and past events, check the following pages:
- Georgetown University Events Calendar
- Slavery, Memory, & Reconciliation News
- Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies – Events
Consult the Collections News page for information on the presentations of librarians at professional academic conferences.
April 2016
D.C. Emancipation Day recognized – Professor Adam Rothman held a discussion on the President's Working Group on Slavery, Memory & Reconciliation in the classroom of the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. During the event, descendants of Catholic enslavers raised questions regarding reconciliation, the first public encounter between a Working Group member and descendants. Juliana Zovak described the event in “Georgetown Professor Speaks About University’s History With Slavery,” The Georgetowner, April 22, 2016.
October 2016
Descendants welcomed – A group of more than 50 descendants from New York examined documents related to the 1838 sale and listened to a presentation by Professor Adam Rothman in the Booth Classroom.
April 2018
Wikipedia session in Murray Room – Editors of The Georgetown Slavery Archive Adam Rothman and Elsa Barraza Mendoza partnered with Wikimedia DC to host members of the Georgetown community to write Wikipedia entries on the subject of Jesuit enslavement.
April 2019
Crowdsourcing transcription event marks D.C. Emancipation Day – Members of the Georgetown community, including GU272 descendants, gathered to transcribe sacramental records in the Riggs Library in an event organized by editors of The Georgetown Slavery Archive with the support of the Library.
August 2019
Hawkins family descendants welcomed at Booth – Descendants of Isaac Hawkins and members of his immediate family who were sold to Louisiana visited the Booth Reading Room to examine documents related to their enslavement and listen to a presentation by Professor Adam Rothman and to view archival materials. The former Jesuit residence is now named for Isaac Hawkins, the first person listed on the document created by the Jesuit enslavers as they considered sale between 1837 and 1838.
April 2020
D.C. Emancipation Day programming – Harriette Hemmasi, Dean of the Library, participated in a video for the University in which faculty, staff, students, and descendants participated.
April 2021
Librarians present at the Universities Studying Slavery Conference hosted by Georgetown – Dean Harriette Hemmasi participated in the opening plenary of the semi-annual conference that brings together professors, librarians, and other administrators to discuss the research into the participation of universities in slavery and present-day reconciliation efforts. Mary Beth Corrigan, Librarian for Collections on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, Cassandra Berman, Archivist for the Maryland Province Archives, and Elsa Barraza Mendoza (G ‘21), Assistant Editor of the Georgetown Slavery Archive, led a breakout session on archival research with descendants and other community researchers. For recorded videos of the conference, see the Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation at Georgetown channel on YouTube.
August 2022
Booth hosts student leaders – Entering freshmen participating in “Leadership & Beyond,” a pre-orientation activity organized by Georgetown Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD), a student-led mentorship program that prepares students to effect positive social change. Library staff prepared a pop up exhibition and short presentation on the collections related to SMR. Students discussed the role of student activism and the reparative process.
November 2022-January 2023
Curator’s Tours of Maryland Province exhibition – Mary Beth Corrigan, the curator of “From Mission to Social Justice: Four Centuries of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus,” gave tours of the exhibition followed by receptions hosted by the Library in the Murray Room. Because of coronavirus restrictions, the tours were given to the following audiences separately: the Jesuit community (November 2022), memory workers in the D.C. community (December 2022), and GU272 descendants (January 2023).
February 2023
Descendants honor their ancestors at an exhibition program – A group of 15 descendants of Louisa Mahoney Mason gathered to view a spotlight case exhibition on Louisa Mahoney Mason, a woman who had escaped the sale of 1838 and worked for the Jesuits the rest of her life. The centerpiece of the exhibition – a portrait of the Mason family outside a dwelling at St. Inigoes – brought to focus the story of a family at the center of the Black Catholic community in Southern Maryland. Her descendants, several of whom met for the first time, shared information about their families, read aloud her obituary, and offered thanks for her persistence. See Franziska Wild, “Living our ancestors’ dreams”: Descendants gather to view a newly discovered GU272 photograph,” Georgetown Voice, April 14, 2023.
June 2023
Evaluation of On These Grounds - The On These Grounds project team invited GU272 Descendants, historians of the D.C. community, and other memory workers to a demonstration of the Georgetown test site. After a presentation on the site, participants used the test site to help with the evaluation of the site as a discovery tool for archival records of Jesuit enslavement.
August 2023
Student leaders return for pre-orientation activities – GOLD organized a session on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation that featured the documents of Jesuit enslavement in a pop-up exhibition and a presentation on the Library’s role in SMR.
March 2024
Descendants meet at Booth – Two branches of Louisa Mahoney Mason’s descendants – from Philadelphia and Maryland – met at the Booth Family Center for Special Collections for the first time. The two-hour program included a presentation of the Georgetown Slavery Archive, Maryland Province Archives, and Woodstock College Archives. The family members examined documents of their ancestors’ activities and said prayers of gratitude for their ancestors.
April 2024
Opening reception for “Facing Georgetown’s History through Art” – Students, faculty, and librarians marked D.C. Emancipation Day by celebrating the work of students who created works of art as their final projects for “Facing Georgetown’s History.” The exhibition of their work in the Community Gallery on the 4th floor of Lauinger consists of reproductions of their work printed on panels. Attendees of the reception also visited “Facing Georgetown’s History through Objects,” which featured three-dimensional prints of archaeological objects. The event was co-sponsored by the Georgetown Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies.
May 2024
High school students visit to learn about SMR – U.S. History students from Bishop O’Connell High School view a pop up exhibition featuring documents related to Georgetown’s involvement in slavery and tour the campus to learn about sites related to slavery. After listening to presentations by librarian Mary Beth Corrigan and Professor Adam Rothman, the students visited “Facing Georgetown’s History through Art.”
June 2024
Booth hosts NEH Summer Institute participants – Faculty, librarians, and advanced graduate students participating in the NEH Summer Institute “Unpacking History of Higher Education in the United States” visited Booth to examine documents related to Georgetown’s participation in slavery and listen to presentations on the the pedagogical practices of Georgetown faculty and the reparative description of manuscripts and archives at Booth. Professor Adam Rothman organized the session; George Mason University (Fairfax, VA) sponsored the Institute.
Juneteenth gathering at community galleries – Georgetown Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies and Georgetown Women’s Alliance partnered with the Library to explore the student artwork presented in the exhibition “Facing Georgetown’s History through Art.” Student artists, GU272 descendants, University staff, and Georgetown alumni attended the event.
October 2024
Gonzaga community shares its history at opening reception for exhibition -- Members of the Georgetown and Gonzaga communities, including GU272 descendants, convened to visit the exhibition "Slavery and Its Memory at Gonzaga College High School." At a reception hosted by the Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Gonzaga social studies teacher Ed Donnellan shared his experiences guiding student researchers to discover their school's slaveholding past. Four students read their poetry reflecting upon this history.
November 2024
Casey-McIlvane Lecture explores the life of the first African American novelist -- Gregg Hecimovich, Ph.D., professor of English at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina and a Non-Resident Fellow of the Hutchins Center at Harvard University, explored his interpretation of a manuscript novel, The Bondwoman's Narrative, at the annual Casey-McIlvane Lecture. His analysis of the text led him to identify Hannah Crafts -- a woman enslaved in Bertie County, North Carolina, who begins writing her novel as she is preparing her successful escape from slavery in 1857 -- as its author. Hecimovich shares his research trail and presents her biography in The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts. The Casey-McIlvane Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture exploring the academic disciplines currently taught at Georgetown and the mission of the Society of Jesus.
Panelists discuss racist imagery found in museum collections -- Georgetown University Libraries and the Tudor Place Foundation organized a panel of scholars and museum professionals, "Concealed to Revealed: Confronting Racist Imagery in Museum Collections." The discussion centered on the prevalence of this artwork, the appropriate role of curators in its interpretation, and the persistence of this racist imagery in the present-day. Melanie A. Adams, Roger Ferguson and Annette Nazareth Director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, served as moderator. The panelists were LaNitra M. Berger, Associate Professor of History & Art History, and Director of African and African American Studies at George Mason University; Ianna Recco, Curator and Art Historian specializing in art history of the transatlantic slave trade and settler colonialism of the eighteenth century; and Shana Klein, Associate Professor of Art History at Kent State University and author of The Fruits of Empire: Art, Food, and the Politics of Race in the Age of American Expansion.
December 2024
Community forum on the history of Georgetown -- On December 6, 2024, the Georgetown University Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies and Dumbarton Oaks hosted a forum, “Georgetown and Legacies of Slavery: Honoring Stories, Embracing Communities" in the Social Room in the Healey Family Student Center. Participants discussed stories about enslavement uncovered by researching the history of their institutions, the interpretation of these sites for the general public, and the perspectives of the descendants of those either enslaved by these institutions or harmed by their racial discrimination. Community historians representing the Black Georgetown Foundation (Mt. Zion-Female Union Band Society Cemeteries), Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Epiphany Catholic Church, Tudor Place, and Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School presented stories about the enslaved people at their sites and shared their experiences of reconciliation with descendants and the broader Georgetown community. Adam Rothman, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies, moderated the opening panel, "Honoring Stories," and GU272 descendant Mélisande Short-Colomb discussed her experiences as a student-activist at Georgetown University.