This Juneteenth, Reflecting on Reconciliation

June 18, 2024

Dear members of the SLU community,

On Wednesday, June 19, the University will be closed in honor of the Juneteenth holiday. 

Juneteenth commemorates the day when enslaved persons in Texas learned from arriving Union troops that they had been freed. That day – June 19, 1865 – was more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

In our Juneteenth message to the SLU community a year ago, we acknowledged that the University’s “annual observance of this day creates a cadence, urging us each year to continue to understand the significance of SLU’s history of slavery and its legacy. It is an annual opportunity for us to pause and reflect, as we continue our long-term journey toward reconciliation, wholeness and healing.”

In this spirit, we would like to update you on SLU’s efforts to reconcile with our painful history of slavery, and to work in partnership with descendants to identify initial steps forward. 

First, for those of you who have joined our community in the past few years, some context may be helpful. In 2016, our local Jesuit province invited SLU to join with it in efforts to research our shared history of participation in the grave sin of slavery. Those efforts, launched by the Jesuits with SLU as an essential supporter and collaborator, became known as the Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation (SHMR) project.

We shared updates on the findings of the SHMR project with the SLU community in 2018 and again in 2019, when the Society of Jesus began the process of contacting known descendants. In the fall of 2019, the late Dr. Jonathan Smith, our inaugural VP of diversity and community engagement, convened a group composed of SLU faculty, a member of the Board of Trustees, SHMR staff, and representatives of the descendant community to begin formulating University-specific reconciliation initiatives to propose to the president and the Board of Trustees. 

The pandemic interrupted these efforts. Then, in mid-2021, the Society of Jesus paused the SHMR project. Soon after, on June 19, 2021, we experienced the heartbreaking loss of Dr. Jonathan Smith. Jonathan’s wisdom and the relationships he had built were at the heart of SLU’s work to reconcile with its history of slavery. It has taken considerable time for us to find our footing.

VP Rochelle Smith joined SLU in October of 2022, and her leadership has been essential to renewing these efforts. Since her appointment as vice president of diversity and innovative community engagement (DICE), we have completed a number of foundational tasks, including:

• Re-assembling internal university records of what work had been done;
• Building new relationships with the Jesuits who are now leading reconciliation efforts for the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States;
• Educating and building capacity among key staff and leaders to ensure that SLU initiatives are sustained consistently in the future – through any personnel transitions, including the presidency;
• And ultimately appointing two individuals, Assistant to the President Nicci Roach and DICE Assistant Vice President Allison Brewer, as formal University liaisons to the descendant community. Their time will be devoted to re-establishing and nurturing core relationships with descendants.

We have begun to renew outreach with key individuals across the descendant community, with hopes of steadily broadening and strengthening this network of relationships. We understand that these relationships are the bedrock on which reconciliation initiatives will be built. Any formal institutional initiative – including a liturgy of reconciliation, a University committee, or a memorial – must be shaped in partnership with members of the descendant community. 

From the early days of SHMR’s work, Dr. Jonathan Smith was clear that reconciliation and healing begin with listening to and learning from members of the descendant community. The Montpelier rubric for Engaging Descendant Communities emphasizes this, as do our Jesuit university colleagues who have received a clear message from descendants
of those enslaved by the Jesuits: “Nothing about us without us.” 

We will continue to update you this fall as our efforts to foster truth, reconciliation and healing begin to take shape. We hear – and share – the sense of urgency communicated by our Student Government Association and many in the SLU community, who wish to see this work move forward. We have much to do. We ask for your understanding as we focus first on essential conversations with members of the descendant community. 

We are grateful for the grace shown to us by members of the descendant community as we begin to discern our next steps together. We are grateful to members of the SLU faculty who have remained steadfast in their commitment to this work from its early days. We are also grateful to our colleagues in the Society of Jesus for their continued collaboration and counsel. 

This Juneteenth and in the months ahead, we ask for your prayers and support as we work steadily – with sincerity and resolve – to restore relationships and take steps toward reconciliation.

Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.
President

Michael Lewis, Ph.D.
Provost

Rochelle D. Smith, M.S.
Vice President for Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement

Fr. David J. Suwalsky, S.J., Ph.D.
Vice President for Mission and Identity