Source: ione / iOne
Elizabeth Thomas was in for the shock of her life after reading a New York Times article about slaves sold by Georgetown University in 1838.
The small Lousiana town where she grew up was named as the landing place for slaves the Washington D.C. university had to sell in order to keep its doors open.
After looking into the coincidence more, Thomas couldn’t believe that her great-great-great grandparents were two of 272 slaves the school sold as property in exchange for money needed to continue operating.
And still, after learning her family’s close slave ties to the school, Thomas decided to apply April 2017 and was accepted into the graduate journalism program.
The school has made several changes to names of its buildings and wrote an open apology for the embarrassing slavery connections that were uncovered by writer Rachel Swarns.
Elizabeth Thomas is set to attend this fall and with the cost of studies coming in at nearly $43k per semester, she’s set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for tuition at the school her ancestors help build.
Talk about irony. Sadly there are no special scholarships offered to the direct descendants of slaves sold by the school for what equates to $3.3 million in today’s currency.
