Summary

Offering Plate – The author describes a ceremony he attended at Georgetown University in 2016 at which its then-president made a commitment to redressing some of the wrongs against slaves perpetrated by the university, including almost 300 people whose sale centuries before kept the university going. The author also describes how a group of descendants of those slaves came to the ceremony without having been invited, one speaking in gratitude and appreciation, another speaking in clear commentary on how there can, could, or should be no action without the active, invited participation of the descendants. The author writes that the university president accepted the possibility of partnership, acknowledging that the university’s actions were only a start. “Next,” the author writes, “comes more substantive reckoning with the moral and political consequences on what was done on our hallowed academic ground two centuries ago” (216).

Prelude to Service...