On April 26, 2022, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow sent a letter to the university community on a report that detailed the university’s historic ties to slavery:
“As the committee’s report powerfully documents, Harvard’s history includes extensive entanglements with slavery. The report makes plain that slavery in America was by no means confined to the South. It was embedded in the fabric and the institutions of the North, and it remained legal in Massachusetts until the Supreme Judicial Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1783.
“By that time, Harvard was nearly 150 years old. And the truth is that slavery played a significant part in our institutional history. Enslaved people worked on our campus supporting our students, faculty, and staff, including several Harvard presidents. The labor of enslaved people both far and near enriched numerous donors and, ultimately, the institution. Some members of our faculty promoted ideas that gave scholarly legitimacy to concepts of racial superiority. And long after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, Harvard continued discriminatory practices that sharply limited the presence of African Americans on our campus.”
President Bacow continued:
“In addition to shedding fresh and important light on Harvard’s entanglements with slavery and its aftermath, the report lays out a number of recommendations for how we as a community can redress—through teaching, research, and service—our legacies with slavery. Together they represent a helpful set of guideposts as we consider how best to approach the future in ways that properly reckon with our past. … To provide the resources, the Corporation has authorized a commitment of $100 million for implementation. Some of these funds will be available for current use, while the balance will be held in an endowment to support this work over time.”
Here are those recommendations, as listed in the report:
- Recommendation 1: Engage and Support Descendant Communities by Leveraging Harvard’s Excellence in Education
- Recommendation 2: Honor Enslaved People through Memorialization, Research, Curricula, and Knowledge Dissemination
- Recommendation 3: Develop Enduring Partnerships with Black Colleges and Universities
- Recommendation 4: Identify, Engage, and Support Direct Descendants
- Recommendation 5: Honor, Engage, and Support Native Communities
- Recommendation 6: Establish an Endowed Legacy of Slavery Fund to Support the University’s Reparative Efforts
- Recommendation 7: Ensure Institutional Accountability
According to the Boston Globe, “Harvard has made only modest headway on this work over the last two years, however, even as peer institutions have taken bolder steps on similar educational and reparative efforts to address the racist violence entwined in their history.”
Recent events have diverted Harvard’s focus and dampened its enthusiasm for meaningful progress. These include the turmoil surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, conservative figures’ campaigns against the school’s flagrant diversity initiatives, and the controversial departure of former president Claudine Gay following her pitiful appearance before a Congressional committee on education.
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a Harvard Kennedy School professor of history, race, and public policy, told the Globe he was leaving for Princeton University because “there are signals that the university’s priorities have shifted enough where this does not seem like it’s being handled with the care and consideration it deserves.”
“I recognize that this is a significant commitment, and for good reason,” President Bacow wrote back in 2022. “Slavery and its legacy have been a part of American life for more than 400 years. The work of further redressing its persistent effects will require our sustained and ambitious efforts for years to come.”
Well, looks like all that responsibility for slavery thing didn’t pan out. Maybe better to focus on peace in the Middle East. Or Zionist genocide. Things that won’t cost $100 million.
