Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia is celebrated on April 16th and Georgetown University is hosting a program entitled "Exploring the Legacy of Anne Marie Becraft and the Oblate Sisters.
Anne Marie Becraft (1805-1833) joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence (OSP) in 1831 after successfully founding and running the first school for black girls in Georgetown. The Oblate Sisters of Providence has great historical import because it is the first religious order for African American women in the US Catholic Church. It was founded in 1829 by Elizabeth Lange (Mother Mary) and Rev. James Hector Joubert, S.S., pictured at the left. In April of 2017, upon the recommendation of Georgetown's Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, a building formerly named after William McSherry, S.J., who was involved in the selling of 272 enslaved people in 1838, was renamed Anne Marie Becraft Hall.
The renaming of the building underscores the deep commitment to reconciliation that Georgetown University and the Maryland Province of Jesuits bring to the task of confronting their history of owning and selling enslaved people.
Woodstock Theological Library's copy of the Grace H. Sherwood's book entitled The Oblates' Hundred and One Years is signed by the author and was originally presented to Timothy Barrett, S.J., a Woodstock Jesuit.
Entry authored by Amy E. Phillips, Rare Materials Cataloger for Woodstock Theological Library on 4/12/2018