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A Jesuit statue is seen in front of Freedom Hall at Georgetown University. In 2016,the university moved to give admission preference to descendants of slaves owned by the Maryland Jesuits as part of its effort to atone for profiting from salve sales.Credit:AP

The New York Times reported the foundation aimed to raise $US100 million and described it as “one of the largest efforts by an institution to atone for slavery”.

The foundation said descendants of the Jesuits’ slaves had rejected individual cash settlements in favour of a substantial investment that could improve lives for generations to come.

The idea of reparations to black people for slavery has been around for a long time and gained new urgency last year as anti-racism protests spread across the United States and the rest of the world following the death of George Floyd after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

During last year’s Democratic primaries many candidates supported the idea of reparations. US President Joe Biden said at the time that he supported studying how reparations could be part of larger efforts to address systemic racism.

“For more than 400 years,our country has denied the persistent human destruction caused by slavery and the conscious and unconscious racism that divides our communities and nation,” said Joseph Stewart,acting president of the foundation.

Stewart is one of more than a thousand descendants of Isaac Hawkins,an enslaved man who was sold to save the Jesuits’ Georgetown University from financial ruin. In 1838,272 enslaved men,women and children were sold by the Jesuits to plantation owners in Louisiana.

Reuters