Conan Louis (CAS ’73, GRAD ’78, LAW ’86) arrived at Georgetown in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, less than 20 years after the university admitted its first Black student. In the 1969 freshman class, he was one of only 23 Black students, out of more than 3,000.
“There were no Black faculty, one Black administrator, and us,” Louis told the Voice.
His freshman year, Georgetown’s Black Student Alliance (BSA) consisted of around 30 Black students total. They envisioned BSA as a way to unite this small group and work towards gaining recognition.
“One of the things we asked for was a place to congregate and where we could have our meetings,” Louis said. “By the end of the semester in 1970, we were given the Black House.”
Fifty-five years later, Black House is home to five undergraduate students and serves as a cultural hub for Black students at Georgetown. While students of all ethnicities may have heard of Black House or enjoyed its social atmosphere, the house is far more than a yellow townhouse that throws parties. Black House hosts professional events for organizations like BSA and the Center for Social Justice and informal gatherings such as club meetings or hair-braiding sessions.
“Black House is one of those spaces that is by Black people, for the people,” Fathia Fasasi (SOH ’27), Black House’s Outreach Coordinator, said.
The original house did not function in the same way that it does today. The Black House, originally known as the Black Student Alliance House, hosted no residents and served as a student center, Louis said.
At the time, the majority of the Black students were native Washingtonians and commuted to school, according to Louis. Black House gave many of them a sense of home on campus. Gail Gillis-Louis (CAS ’75), Louis’ wife whom he met at Georgetown, traveled to campus daily during her freshman and sophomore years. Black House was an anchor for her at a school where she looked different from many of her classmates.
“When people would see me walking across campus, they assumed that I worked for the school,” Gillis-Louis said.
As a Black woman at Georgetown, Gillis-Louis felt she had to be an expert in every setting to prove herself. At Black House, her identity and place at Georgetown were not questioned, and she could destress, especially among other Black women.
“It was just important to be in a room of women and speak to a community where you don’t have to explain yourself,” Gillis-Louis said.
Louis became the president of BSA during his time at Georgetown. In his tenure, he sought to define what the Black House could be for students. He worked closely with the president and faculty, advocating and raising funds for Black students.
“At that time no one had a vision for the future of the Black House,” Louis said. “It just was what it was.”
A major goal of Black House was to support Louis’s BSA in improving retention among Black students. Of the 23 Black freshmen in Louis’s class, only seven graduated with him.
In hopes to reduce attrition, the Black House began offering academic and social support. There was a library on the second floor, with old blue books and textbooks to help students prepare for exams. The ground floor remained a social space, with loud music playing, card games, and people hanging out on the front steps.
Even with such strong engagement, Black House was envisioned as a temporary site. Paula Scott (CAS ’73, LAW ’76), former president of BSA, explained that members initially wanted to phase out the organization after a few years. She had hoped that an increase of Black students would allow them to become acclimated to Georgetown more easily and there would no longer be a need for such an alliance. Soon, they realized this would not be the case.
Georgetown has made progress in diversity since the 1970s, though it is still a predominantly white institution. Only 6% of enrolled students in 2023 identified as Black, compared to 42% white students.
“The original mission was to help the University’s few Black people find each other. Now, we have to redefine exactly what we want[ed] to do,” Scott said.
Following efforts to increase Black enrollment in the early ’70s, the purpose of the Black House and the BSA shifted, focusing more on addressing treatment and support for current students. This new focus brought a sense of permanency to the Black House. The leaders wanted to make Black House a more central location, rather than solely a place for those who felt a lack of belonging in the Georgetown community.
Current residents work hard to carry on the legacy of Black House, upholding its values of inclusivity and community. Today, it serves as a home to club meetings just as much as a space for students who want to practice their DJing.
However, with the Department of Education recently threatening to withhold funding from universities with programs such as identity-based Living Learning Communities like Black House, these cultural spaces have come back into the spotlight.
Mamadou “Momo” Diabate (SFS ’26), Black House’s Communications Coordinator, said that, despite these tensions, Black House provides a critical space in the Georgetown community.
“Just because a student has other spaces on campus where they feel comfortable doesn’t mean the Black House should be taken away,” Diabate said. “You shouldn’t be restricting it because progress has been made—there should always be a continuous goal of trying to progress as a community.”
