"Universities across the country are studying their relationship to slavery and are being called on by students to address their histories by making symbolic and financial reparations.
During the colonial era the wealth of universities, in the form of endowments and benefactors, was inextricably tied to the slave trade, numerous university presidents owned enslaved people and famous alumni such as John C. Calhoun championed the cause of slavery. Enslaved people were owned by universities and worked on campuses until the abolition of slavery.
Now, students at those institutions are organizing. They are focusing on erecting monuments, taxing endowments, creating divestment campaigns and offering alternative campus tours that highlight the university’s history of slavery. Students are also pushing schools to identify and support descendants of people enslaved by the universities.
“Universities typically dramatically overstate the limitations on what they can use their endowments for,” said Charlie Eaton, professor of sociology at the University of California, Merced, and author of “Bankers in the Ivory Tower.” “If the university has a will to use its endowment toward racial equity it will,” said Eaton.
See tmore in the WBAL article here.
