Mélisande Short-Colomb’s Ancestors Were Enslaved by Georgetown University. Now, at 63, She’s Enrolled There as a Freshman

On the first day of class at Georgetown University, the 63-year-old freshman left her dorm room in Copley Hall, carrying highlighters and a legal pad. Walking down the hallway, her gray-blond dreadlocks swinging, her heavy bracelets chiming, Mélisande Short-Colomb gave her schedule a quick look. Today she’d attend the “Problem of God,” a course on the existence and nature of God. And tomorrow would bring the class she’d been waiting for: African American Studies.

It was a subject with which Short-Colomb had recently become more acquainted. The history of her own family was the history of African Americans, and, she has learned, proof of how deeply the roots of slavery go in America’s most prominent institutions and…

Please read original article Mélisande Short-Colomb’s Ancestors Were Enslaved by Georgetown University. Now, at 63, She’s Enrolled There as a Freshman posted on Healthy Black Girls on 11 September 2017 | 12:39 am —