Dear Campus Community,
On Friday November 6, 2026, President Rhonda Phillips will lead the Sacred Journey in St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s annual salute to the Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland. This is a pivotal moment in our public sacrament to the value of the lives of the enslaved peoples who preceded us on these grounds. It affirms that in the midst of the raging storms of racial animus that threaten the teaching of the history of African American enslavement, our College remains a safe harbor unflinchingly committed to the vision of the Beloved Community that repudiates racism in all its forms and respects the inherent value of all people.
In honor of this occasion, we, the faculty of African & African Diaspora Studies, the Commemoration Committee, and the Organizing Committee of the Sacred Journey make a special request. We write with an invitation for you to engage with the events planned for Friday, November 6, entitled "The Sacred Journey: The Beloved Community."
The Sacred Journey will begin at 4:45 p.m. at the Commemorative site and end at 6.15 p.m. at the St. Mary’s River. The Procession of Dignity will take us from the Commemorative site to the St. Mary’s River. At the river we will partake in the Ceremony of Remembrance marked by the invocation of the names of the enslaved and libations to honor them.
We believe that our campus community must become our Beloved Community. We believe that participation in the Sacred Journey offers a wonderful opportunity for our community to enjoy a collective intimacy with the Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland. And there is nothing in the life of the College that provides more power and passion in the experience of the campus community than a gathering of all of us marching from the memorial to the enslaved African Americans who endured the sin of slavery on these very grounds.
In contemplating how we should choose to remember and honor the enslaved of Southern Maryland, we consciously invoke the vision of the Beloved Community popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He believed that a local and national community of diverse peoples living in solidarity, justice and love could not only one day exist in America but become the center of its moral universe. We believe that our own community must hold to these ideals. We acknowledge that enslaved African Americans once toiled in bondage on these sacred grounds. In the Sacred Journey, we return to them the dignity stolen from them. We believe that in doing so we too can become a Beloved Community.
Seen from the perspective of 1726, it is utterly unimaginable that 300 years later, that here on these very grounds, we could construct a Beloved Community that embraces our common humanity and rejects race as the organizing principle of our lives. Certainly, the men of 1726 could not have imagined that a White female president of a college would lead such a procession. In the spirit of this Moral Moment, we ask all our faculty, students, and staff to join us in this year’s Sacred Journey.
Sincerely,
Garrey Dennie, Chair of the Sacred Journey Committee,
AADS Coordinator, Department of History
Peggy Aud, Office of Events and Conferences
Rebecca “Kim” Brown, Office of Events and Conferences
Kelsey Bush ’94, Office of Career Development and Community Engagement
Lee Capristo, Office of Communications and Marketing
Michelle Carter, Office of Belonging and Signature Scholars Department
Jeffrey Coleman, Department of English
Julie King, Department of Anthropology
George MacLeod, Department of International Languages and Cultures
Marcy McKinney, Office of Auxiliary Services
Renea Morris, Office of Communications and Marketing
