For any college freshman, packing up and moving 1,000 miles away from home can be a daunting prospect. For Melisande Short-Colomb, a native of New Orleans and new freshman at Georgetown University this fall, the equation is a bit more complicated.
Colomb’s great-great grandparents, Abraham Mahoney and Mary Ellen Queen, were sold by a former Georgetown president, a Jesuit priest, in 1838. They were victims of one of the largest recorded sales of a slave community to have occurred within the United States. Pressured by the prospect of imminent bankruptcy, the Jesuits sold 272 men, women and children, sending them from Maryland tobacco plantations to the cane fields of Louisiana by ship.
In many ways, Colomb’s decision to attend the university is not just a new step forward for her as an individual but a form of homecoming and a reckoning on behalf of her ancestors.
Appearing at the steps of her freshman dormitory to welcome Diverse to her new home, Colomb cuts a striking figure in a coral sweater that accentuates her white-blond dreadlocks. As Colomb puts it, attending Georgetown is the third book of what she refers to as the trilogy of her life. She is 63 years old and has already lived several lives — as a stay-at-home mother caring for four children for 12 years and as a chef working in the legendary New Orleans culinary industry for another 22 years after that.
“My impetus for doing things at this time of my life is very different than it would be for an 18- or 20-year-old,” she says. “I’ve already done all those things that young people still have to do.”
Colomb lives in a freshman dorm situated on the campus’ main quad, close by Georgetown’s iconic Healy Hall, with its Gothic spires and tower. Some friends recently visited and helped her rearrange the furniture to make it cozier. Now it is home, albeit just for the academic year.
At this point, Colomb’s family history may be familiar to some readers. She has been interviewed by NPR, The Washington Post and several other outlets. “I’ve been doing quite a lot of talking,” she says with a laugh. “It started with The Washington Post. I’ve decided there’s no better way to be introduced to your new town than to have your photograph on the front page of the local newspaper.”
