CENTRALITY TO OUR MISSION
The work of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion at SLUH is essential to our mission to be “a Catholic Jesuit learning community dedicated to building Christ’s kingdom of truth, justice, love and peace.” Indeed, the word catholic itself means all-embracing and universal. As a Catholic school, our work is rooted most profoundly in the Gospel, in which Christ clearly identifies Himself with the most marginalized, telling his followers, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me” (Mt 25:45). The Apostle Paul affirms the Christian commitment to human equality when he writes to the Galatians that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).
Racism and how to properly combat racism have been a significant challenge to the mission of SLUH in St. Louis. As Fr. Bryan Massingale asserts in Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, racism is a culture that is contrary to the most fundamental tenets of Christian belief. Racism 1) contradicts the truth of our common identity as children of God; 2) perpetuates injustice both overt and subtle; and 3) sows hatred and animosity instead of love and peace. For these reasons, SLUH must continue to make a more vigorous, explicit commitment to advancing racial justice through its overall program. SLUH is committed to its presence in the city of St. Louis, and it seeks to admit “talented young men who reflect the economic, geographic and social diversity of the area.” To make the commitment of SLUH to St. Louis truly transformative, we must do more to serve talented young men of all racial and ethnic groups in our region. Specifically, we must do more to serve the talented young Black men of St. Louis. Taking concrete steps and setting explicit goals, the SLUH administration, faculty and staff can make profound changes that will help us better achieve our mission.
OUR HISTORY
The year 1818 is meaningful to everyone in the SLUH community. We take pride in the long tradition of academic excellence that began in that year when Bishop Louis W. V. Du Bourg founded the school, the first of its kind west of the Mississippi River.
Along with that pride, however, we must also accept responsibility for the participation of the school in the evil of slavery. Bishop Du Bourg himself enslaved human beings of African descent, [1] and he arranged for their involuntary labor to serve the Vincentian priests who first staffed the school. [2]
The Maryland Jesuits who journeyed to St. Louis in 1823 and assumed control of the school in 1828 also enslaved Black people. They brought with them from Maryland three married couples: Tom and Polly Brown; Moses and Nancy Queen; and Isaac and Succy Queen. In 1829, 16 more enslaved people were forced to move from Maryland to St. Louis.
The number of people enslaved by the Missouri Jesuits continued to grow through the birth of children, additional purchases, and even through “gifts.” Enslaved labor contributed to the development of our school through the end of the Civil War, ceasing with the abolition of slavery by the 13th Amendment. [3]
In accordance with Missouri laws mandating separate schools for Black students, SLUH excluded Black applicants for the next 80 years. In 1946, however, eight years before Brown v. Board of Education declared segregated education unconstitutional, SLUH admitted its first Black student, a sophomore named John Carter, whose father was an instructor at Stowe Teachers College. From 1946 on, Black students attended SLUH in small numbers, generally representing no more than 1-2% of the student body. In 1991 when the SLUH Minority Action Plan was approved, Black students represented 2.75% of the student body. At that time, the school had only four Black faculty members in its history, with the first being hired in 1976.
1818 1828 1946 1976
In the years since then, the percentage of Black students at SLUH has more than doubled. However, as we outline in this document, more work needs to be done in order to reconcile with our institutional history and with the Black community. Reconciliation begins with an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Grounded in a Catholic faith that views reconciliation as a sacramental reality for individuals, as representatives of SLUH we hereby apologize for the sins of enslavement and exclusion that mar our school history and have caused real and generational harm to Black individuals and families.
We also acknowledge that the legacies of these sins continue to impact our work, and we feel the call of God to improve our service to the Black community of St. Louis. It is our hope and belief that in taking even better care of our Black students, families and alumni, we will end up taking better care of all of our stakeholders.
[1] Jennifer Brinker, “Archdiocese’s research into history with slavery reveals three bishops, priests as slaveowners,” St. Louis Review (St. Louis, MO), June 17, 2021.
[2] Kelly L. Schmidt, “Slavery and the Shaping of Catholic Missouri,” article forthcoming in the bicentennial issue of the State Historical Society of Missouri, Fall 2021.
[3] Kelly L. Schmidt, Sean Ferguson, and Claire Peterson, “Enslaved People in the Jesuits’ Missouri Province,” Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, 2020.
CATALYTIC EVENTS
Thirty years have elapsed since the SLUH Minority Action Plan. We are eager to revisit and update its work, bringing to bear a consciousness and conscience informed by societal developments and the work that has been done in the fields of institutional and educational diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Catalytic events in our region, nation and church also compel us. In her book Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice, Brenda Salter McNeil defines “catalytic events” as “the often painful but necessary experiences that happen to individuals and organizations and serve to jump-start the reconciliation process.” McNeil speaks to the sacramental quality of such experiences when she notes that “We need a catalyst to shake us up, lower our resistance and push us out and into the space that God envisions for us.”
Perhaps the most significant recent catalytic event In our St. Louis region was the death of Michael Brown at the hands of police in 2014 and the months of protest and unrest that followed. The Ferguson Commission Report, created in response, identified widespread racial disparities in the St. Louis region in many categories—education, health and health care, employment, wealth, housing and more. As an educational leader in this region since 1818, SLUH wants to acknowledge this inequitable reality and take action so that our school community can be a leader in helping to remedy it.
Since the events in Ferguson, other events, most notably the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, also at the hands of police, have led to further nationwide protests, underscoring the need to prioritize racial justice and reconciliation at all levels of our society.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops responded to this need in 2018 by publishing Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love—A Pastoral Letter Against Racism, which asserts bluntly that “racism still infects our nation.”
The letter calls upon Catholics and Catholic institutions to acknowledge their participation in the sinfulness of racism, to ask for forgiveness, and to “advocat[e] and promote policies at all levels that will combat racism and its effects.”
The Society of Jesus, through the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, and in close partnership with Saint Louis University, is doing this work through its Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation project. This project is producing research into Jesuit reliance upon the labor of enslaved people, bringing their stories to light and connecting with their descendants.
This new DEI vision statement and strategic plan for SLUH represents our institutional response to these catalytic events, a new beginning rather than an end point in our journey toward reconciliation and justice.
VISION
Our vision statement and the strategic plan that follows from it focus on five main areas.
1. SCHOOL CULTURE
We seek to make the culture of SLUH hospitable and nurturing to academically promising students of all backgrounds, especially Black students. Additionally, in order to make SLUH a local, national and global leader in forming students committed to racial justice and healing the wounds of racism, we envision a school culture in which diversity is explicitly valued, equity is carefully taught, and inclusion is consciously practiced.
2. ACADEMICS
We envision a SLUH where data related to academic performance do not reveal disparities predictable by race.
3. REPRESENTATION
We envision a SLUH student body whose racial and ethnic diversity increasingly reflects that of the St. Louis region. Our vision is that any talented college-bound male student, including Black students, interested in a values-driven education and an excellent academic curriculum should be thinking seriously about SLUH and, moreover, feel welcomed into the school and be able to attend regardless of his financial resources. Concomitantly, we desire that the faculty, staff, administrative, and business office demographics of the school match those of the student body.
4. DISCIPLINE
We envision a SLUH at which disciplinary data do not reveal disparities predictable by race. We envision a school that uses restorative practices instead of punitive practices to support student formation and address student behavior that falls short of expectations.
5. STUDENT, FAMILY AND ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT
The Board of Trustees envisions SLUH as a model in engaging students, families and alumni at levels that are not predictable by race or ethnicity. The Board envisions a SLUH that offers programming that appeals to the interests of students, families and alumni and in which all students, families and alumni experience positive engagements with the school that go beyond students’ presence in the classroom.
CONCLUSION
In identifying broad goals for the five areas of our Vision, the Board of Trustees intends to provide guidance to the SLUH administration, faculty and staff who will take on the responsibility for designing more specific goals and metrics in order to make the vision a reality. The Board DEI subcommittee will receive an annual report each May on the progress of the school in these areas. The DEI subcommittee itself will review and update the vision at intervals of no more than six years, with attention to local and national conditions and events.
With this system in place, SLUH will ensure a sustained and evolving commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, a commitment that will be of great significance in our institutional mission to give greater glory to God in service to the St. Louis region, the United States, and indeed the whole world.
SLUH.ORG/DIVERSITY
