By Carolyn Thompson
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The
promise of reparations to atone
for historical ties to slavery has
opened new territory in a reckoning
at U.S. colleges, which
until now have responded with
monuments, building name
changes and public apologies.
Georgetown University and
two theological seminaries
have announced funding commitments
to benefit descendants
of the enslaved people who
were sold or toiled to benefit the
institutions.
While no other schools have
gone so far, the advantages that
institutions received from the
slavery economy are receiving
new attention as Democratic
presidential candidates
talk about tax credits and other
subsidies that nudge the idea of
reparations toward the mainstream.
The country has been discussing
reparations in one way
or another since slavery officially
ended in 1865. This year
marks the 400th anniversary
of the arrival of the first slave,
launching the violence afflicted
on black people to prop up the
Southern economy.
University of Buffalo senior
Jeffrey Clinton said he thinks
campuses should acknowledge
historical ties to slavery but
that the federal government
should take the lead on an issue
that reaches well beyond higher
education.
“It doesn’t have to be trillions
of dollars ... but at least address
the inequities and attack the
racial wealth gap between
African Americans and white
Americans and really everybody
else, because this is an American
made institution. We didn’t
immigrate here,” said Clinton, a
descendant of slaves who lives
in Bay Shore, New York.
A majority of Georgetown
undergraduates voted in April
for a nonbinding referendum
to pay a $27.20-per-semester
“Reconciliation Contribution’’
toward projects in underprivileged
communities that are
home to some descendants of
Caribbean L 38 ife, December 20-26, 2019
272 slaves who were sold in
1838 to help pay off the school’s
debts.
Georgetown President John
DeGioia responded in October
with plans instead for a university
led initiative, with the
goal of raising about $400,000
from donors, rather than students,
to support projects like
health clinics and schools in
those same communities.
Elsewhere, discussions of
reparations have been raised
by individual professors, like at
the University of Alabama, or
by graduate students and community
members, like at the
University of Chicago.
At least 56 universities have
joined a University of Virginialed
consortium, Universities
Studying Slavery, to explore
their ties to slavery and share
research and strategies.
In recent years, some
schools, like Yale University,
have removed the names of
slavery supporters from buildings.
New monuments have
gone up elsewhere, including
In this Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019 photo passers-by walk near
an entrance to a building at Harvard Law School, in Cambridge,
Mass. A cluster of commitments to atone for historical
ties to slavery marks new territory in a reckoning at
U.S. colleges that have responded up until now with monuments,
building names changes and public apologies.
Associated Press / Steven Senne
Brown University’s Slavery
Memorial sculpture — a partially
buried ball and chain —
and the Memorial to Enslaved
Laborers under construction at
the University of Virginia.
“It’s a very diffused kind of
set of things happening around
the nation,” said Guy Emerson
Mount, an associate professor
of African American history at
Auburn University. “It’s really
important to pay attention to
what each of these are doing”
because they could offer learning
opportunities and inform
national discussions on reparations.
Reparations mark new front
for US colleges tied to slavery