In October, Yale University established a working group of students, faculty, and people from the local community to investigate the school’s links to slavery and racism. The group is headed by historian David Blight and is expected to issue a report at the end of this year. According to Yale’s president Peter Salovey:
“As an American institution that is 319 years old, Yale has a complex past that includes associations, many of them formative, with individuals who actively promoted slavery, anti-Black racism, and other forms of exploitation,” Salovey wrote. “We have a responsibility to explore this history, including its most difficult aspects; we cannot ignore our institution’s own ties to slavery and racism, and we should take this opportunity to research, understand, analyze, and communicate that history.”
History professor Edward Rugemer told the Yale Daily News that “it’s important for universities like Yale to explore its relationship to slavery.” He said that it is “an important process for our country to go through to understand how we got here and what role slavery played in it.”
As I have written about elsewhere, a number of universities and other institutions have released reports on their involvement in slavery. These include Columbia University and Georgetown.
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What an interesting project! One to bring the community and the University closer together as the history is discovered. Hopefully and true acknowledgement of the ancestors although not recognized nor considered as community members played an active role in the growth of not only the university but the entire community. I am sure all involved with the project will have their own story to share