St. Louis University was built using enslaved labor. Descendants are making a new call for compensation

Descendants of the Black people enslaved by St. Louis University have for the first time calculated how much labor and wealth was stolen from their ancestors.

The total wealth acquired from stolen labor, including the construction of the Jesuit institution, totaled between $361 million and $70-plus billion .

At least 70 people were enslaved by the Jesuits in Missouri .

The estimate was based on what the university’s 70 enslaved people would have earned with a low wage — five cents an hour — for 24 hours a day, from 1823 until the abolition of slavery in 1865 .

Proudie Proudie said her family made the decision to stand up not only for itself, but for all the enslaved descendants of those who built this country.