BIOGRAPHY FELLOW 2021 – 2022

Rachel L. Swarns

For a biography on The 272: Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church

Rachel L. Swarns is a journalist, author and professor who writes about race and race relations as a contributing writer for The New York Times. Her articles about Georgetown University and its roots in slavery touched off a national conversation about American institutions and their ties to this painful period of history. She is the author of American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama (2012) and a co-author of  Unseen: Unpublished Black History from The New York Times Photo Archives (2017).  Her book is a multigenerational biography of an enslaved family torn apart by the 1838 slave sale that saved Georgetown from financial ruin.