By Caroline E. Curran and Sara Dahiya, Crimson Staff Writers
3 days ago
Following the release of a long-awaited report that detailed the “integral” role slavery played in shaping Harvard, University President Lawrence S. Bacow on Friday pledged to marshal the school’s resources to “repair the damage” caused by the legacy of slavery.
Bacow’s remarks came at a day-long event held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study that was dedicated to discussing a landmark University report released last week that detailed how slavery “powerfully shaped Harvard.”
Harvard has pledged to allocate $100 million to implement the recommendations of the report, which found that prominent University affiliates enslaved more than 70 people and that slavery was a key source of the school’s wealth across three centuries.
“The reality is that slavery played a significant role in our institutional history,” Bacow said. “That this truth has been obscured for so long should prompt our indignation — and it does — but, more importantly, it must also prompt our action.”
The event, entitled “Telling the Truth about All This: Reckoning with Slavery and Its Legacies at Harvard and Beyond,” featured addresses from Bacow, Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber ’76, Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Prairie View A&M University President Ruth J. Simmons, and Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Director Ibram X. Kendi, among others.
See related:
- Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University
- Telling the Truth about All This: Reckoning with Slavery and Its Legacies at Harvard and Beyond | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University
- At Radcliffe Conference, Bacow Pledges to Dedicate Resources to ‘Repair the Damage’ of Harvard’s Slavery Ties | News | The Harvard Crimson
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