A planned apology Wednesday afternoon from St. Louis University to the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved (DSLUE) at St. Xavier College Church was abruptly cancelled.
According to (DSLUE) representatives, the organization did not participate after it received an agenda from SLU officials that it had not approved by midnight of the day of the event.
Eric Proudie, a descendant of Henrietta Mills, said he flew in from Florida for the event. He said the apology included in the agenda that was sent to DSLUE had words meant to “pacify” them.
“We decided we could not support a fake apology,” Eric Proudie said on the steps in front of St. Xavier College Church while surrounded by other descendants.
Robin Proudie, another descendant of Mills and the founder and executive director of DSLUE, said the apology in the agenda included the name of an organization whose values “do not align with the DSLUE’s vision for reparations.”
“It looked good on the outside,” Proudie told The American.
“When we read the president’s apology, [it] was beautiful to us. But there are certain elements that were added to the apology aligning with an organization that we explicitly told them that we don’t agree with.”
Proudie said because the administration sent the agenda so late at night, she felt it was an attempt to ensure the organization would not read it before the event – and they would be forced to agree with it.
She said she sent amendments in response to the agenda which could not be approved by the SLU board in time for the event. This led the organization to step back and reconsider their past conversations with SLU.
“They put out a statement that they may need to come back to the table, so hopefully they’ll do that. We didn’t want this to happen, but we had to do what we had to do,” Proudie said.
Proudie formed the non-profit organization to honor and commemorate Jesuit and St. Louis University Enslaved Ancestors, preserve heritage and legacy, repair historical harms, and educate the broader public about this history now and in the future.
From 1823 to 1865, Proudie’s ancestors helped build SLU and St. Xavier College Church. Proudie said Chauvin was enslaved to a local St. Louis woman named Amanda Curtis. She said her ancestors also helped sustain the new university as well as the first mission of the Jesuit in St. Louis, including Jesuit-led schools, churches, and farms in our region.
Proudie also discovered the founder of SLU, Bishop Louis William V. DuBourg, and the first president, Peter Verhaegen, S.J., enslaved her ancestors, and the first 11 presidents owned at least 70 slaves.
Descendants of St. Louis University Enslaved DSLUE is seeking reparative and restorative justice. Descendants of Henrietta Mills gathered at St. Louis University on February 8, 2024 to announce that the estimated value of wealth acquired from slave labor by the university is worth $361 million to $70 billion
The organization’s civil rights attorney Avera Martin told The American she felt that the agenda “was not a descendant-led process.” She said the timing of it surprised the organization.
“The descendants did not cancel this event,” Martin said. “This felt like an ambush.”
